By David Owens, newseditor@laurelleadercall.com
Even before last week’s bus stop tragedy, State Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ellisville) was concerned with the disregard some drivers show around those vehicles.
McDaniel said he plans to resubmit a bill increasing the penalties for passing a school bus following last Friday’s incident that claimed the life of 5-year-old Nathaniel Glenn Key. Key, a kindergartner at North Jones Elementary, was struck by a vehicle as he was exiting a school bus near his home on Houston Road. He was transported to South Central Regional Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Dominic Gebben, 23, of Laurel, is charged with manslaughter-culpable negligence and felony fleeing in a motor vehicle in connection with Key’s death. Gebben is currently being held in the Jones County Adult Detention Facility on a $1 million cash bond.
McDaniel said that hearing about the tragedy broke his heart as a father.
“It absolutely took the wind out of me,” he said. “It’s hard to describe what being a father does, but losing Nathan really touched me. I’ll never forget it, never in a million years.”
Neither will Key’s parents, Andy and Lori Key, who McDaniel said he has talked to by telephone.
“We’re going to do our best to create a ‘Nathan’s Law’ essentially,” McDaniel said. “They’re going to be very supportive. I want their input on the law, to the extent that I want them to research this area and encourage their input. We’ve got to find something positive out of this tragedy.”
According to Mississippi Law, a motorist who “willingly, intentionally and unlawfully fails to stop for a school bus, clearly marked as such, which was stopped on a street or road for the purpose of receiving or discharging school children and wait for the children to cross the street or highway and for the school bus to proceed in the direction it was going” faces a minimum fine of $200 and a maximum fine of $5,000 and/or three years in prison.
McDaniel said that after hearing some complaints, he introduced Senate Bill No. 3008 for the 2009 regular session.
“I decided to introduce the bill this year because, obviously, the old penalty wasn’t substantial enough to really warrant serious consideration,” he said. “The idea was to take the bill, increase the penalty and make it where the penalty cannot be reduced. I also wanted to give a second penalty of an even higher nature.”
Under McDaniel’s proposal, drivers violating the law “upon conviction thereof shall be fined $500; upon a second or subsequent conviction, the person shall be fined not less than $800, or imprisoned for not more than one year or both. Fines imposed shall be neither reduced nor suspended.”
McDaniel said that he thought the bill would be common sense and easily go through committee.
“The chairman of the Judiciary B committee decided not to bring it out,” he said. “They did not even vote on it this past year. What I want to do to this year is resubmit that same bill, but really take the time to create a comprehensive school bus safety bill.”
McDaniel added that he doesn’t believe his bill was ignored from a malicious standpoint.
“Perhaps this type of bill didn’t seem quite as important,” he said. “Now, in retrospect, it seems very, very important.”
McDaniel said that he wants to not only make the penalties more severe, but also school buses and drop-offs safer.
“It’s going to be an omnibus type bill,” he said. “Some of the ideas are higher fines, revoked licenses and maybe even a felony component any time a child is injured during the violation of the statute. This is the time to put a bill into effect that is truly comprehensive.”
