Harrisburg, PA – School bus drivers from across Pennsylvania arrived in State College this past weekend for the 42^nd Annual State School Bus Driver Safety Competition. The competition held on June 22 and 23 took place on the grounds of the Mount Nittany Middle School.

A total of 78 competed in this year’s competition (66 conventional and 12 transit drivers). Drivers and competition judges arrived on Friday evening for an orientation and the driver’s written examination. On Saturday morning, the drivers got behind the wheel to compete in the skills portion of the competition. Events included a physical and verbal bus inspection; height judgement; diminishing clearance; simulated bus stop; railroad crossings; backing up; and curb line parking.

Congratulations to the following drivers who will represent Pennsylvania at the International School Bus Safety Competition being held in Philadelphia on July 22.

Conventional Bus

Shanon O’Brien – Shanon drives for Krapf School Bus, West Chester (Chester County). She resides in Downingtown (Chester County) and is a three-peat champion having also finished first in the state competition in 2016 and 2017.

Larry Hannon, Sr. – Larry is a driver for the Centennial School District, Warminster (Bucks County). This year marked Larry’s 40^th state competition. He has finished first eleven times at the state level and is a nine-time champion of the international competition. Larry resides in Hartsville (Bucks County).

Transit Bus

Mike Webster – Mike drives for Brightbill Transportation located in Lebanon (Lebanon County). Mike has had great success in state competitions finishing in the top spot in 2015 and in second place in 2016. Mike is a resident of Lebanon.

Beth McGowan – Beth is a driver for the Lower Merion School District (Montgomery County). She is a resident of Ardmore (Delaware County). Over the past three years, Beth has been moving up in the state competition. In 2016, she finished 6^th in the state competition and then 4^th in the 2017 event.

“We are proud of all of these drivers who trained hard for the competition. We look forward to the International Competition in Philadelphia and wish our state representatives good luck,” said Dallas Krapf, Chair of the Safety Competition Committee, “I want to also thank all our volunteers and event sponsors who help make this event such a success.”

The complete results of this year’s competition can be found on the PSBA website at www.paschoolbus.org.

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