Concerns over school crossing safety in York County stretch back for decades

A week ago, the death of a school crossing guard shook Fort Mill. Yet it wasn’t the first time a crossing guard was struck by a vehicle on duty, even at at the same schools.

There have been at least three incidents where school crossing guards were hit by vehicles in the past decade, just in Fort Mill alone. Concern for crossing guard and student safety along busy roadways throughout the Rock Hill region, though, goes back much further.

In the latest case, 61-year-old crossing guard Stanley Brucker was hit and killed by a vehicle March 21 at the bus entrance to Fort Mill Elementary School and Fort Mill Middle School. Authorities announced this week that no charges would be filed in the case.

On Friday morning, York School District superintendent Chuck Epps emailed parents and staff, addressing what happened last week. The district is “profoundly saddened” by Brucker’s loss, Epps wrote. “While Mr. Brucker was not a direct employee of the district, he was an integral part of our extended school family.”

Here’s a look at some of those other incidents as well as concerns over the decades:

Teen charged in 2018 incident

On a Friday afternoon in February 2018, Fort Mill police got a call about a vehicle hitting a pedestrian in front of two schools. It was a little before 3 p.m, just after Fort Mill Elementary and Middle School let out for the day.

Police arrived to find a crossing guard injured, but no driver at the scene.

Crossing guard Garry Tate of Charlotte was taken by ambulance to Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville. By Sunday, he’d been discharged.

A 19-year-old man from Charlotte was arrested that night and charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving minor injury.

Reached by phone this week, Tate said his prayers go out to Brucker’s family over a death that happened at the same place where Tate was hit.

Tate doesn’t work as a crossing guard anymore. He suffered a head injury that’s been difficult but could’ve been much worse, he said.

Tate also shared concern for others who work as crossing guards. “I’m not the only person that got hit,” he said.

River Trail Elementary guard struck

In September 2021, during the third week of school, a woman working as a crossing guard outside River Trail Elementary School was hit by a car. River Trail opened in January 2021.

The 67-year-old woman was standing in the middle turn lane on Fort Mill Parkway during afternoon dismissal when a driver, 80, struck her.

The guard was alert when police arrived, and taken to a hospital for treatment.

School safety, students, parents and crossing guards

A review of Herald and Fort Mill Times archives didn’t show other instances of vehicles hitting crossing guards. But it does show a history of near misses, concerned parents and pleas for improvements in the task of getting students safely to and from school.

Over 60 years ago, Rock Hill parents rallied funds to hire crossing guards for dangerous school crossings in 1962.

A Rock Hill fourth-grader at Rosewood School was hit by a car in 1977 while heading home from school on Celanese Bypass. In 1984, a 10-year-old Rock Hill fifth-grader had both legs broken after being hit by a car walking to Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School.

In both cases, there was public outcry for additional crossing guards.

Rock Hill church volunteers were trained by police to work as crossing guards in 2006 after reports of students having to dart across busy roads.

Such pleas for additional support resumed when a Saluda Trail Middle School seventh-grader was hit crossing the road after school in 2009, and again when a Northwestern High School freshman was hit in the morning rush hour in 2012.

Interviews of crossing guards or editorial letters from the 1970s, 1990s and 2000s are similar, with tales of speeding or angry drivers slamming on breaks just before hitting crossing guards.

Changing roles for crossing guards

Crossing guard roles have changed over the years.

Only a few decades ago, some were listed as adult crossing guards to distinguish them from school children — sometimes elementary school age — who stopped traffic on sometimes well-traveled roads.

What hasn’t changed is the way crossing guards are viewed. Crossing guards have largely been revered when they’ve come up in news accounts.

Editorials in the 1940s and 1950s urged parents to teach children to obey them. Many have been named support staff members of the year by local schools. There have been regional accolades and multiple profiles written of long-serving ones.

Countless people who served as crossing guards had that fact included in their obituaries. Multiple people used the role in their campaigns for public office.

No changes announced at school entrances

At the schools where Brucker was struck, shared entrances at the Fort Mill elementary and middle schools are about 1,000 feet apart of Springfield Parkway.

The northern entrance mainly brings car traffic in and out of the schools. The southern one, where Brucker was fatally hit, is mainly for buses but school staff and after-school athletics use it, too.

The Fort Mill School District hasn’t announced any plans for changes at those schools or any others in the wake of Brucker’s death.

“The district is actively working to enhance safety measures at our school entrances, exits and crossings,” Superintendent Epps told parents and staff in his email. “While specific changes are still under discussion, rest assured that these conversations are ongoing.”

He urged the community to use patience and awareness in school speed zones.

Dangerous roads, fast drivers

Tate had worked in front of the Fort Mill schools main entrance for four or five years before he was injured in 2018.

Police or highway patrol officers used to sit along Springfield Parkway and write tickets when Tate worked there, he said. Police are the best solution to slow traffic during arrival and dismissal times, he said.

“Have a police car sit there for 45 minutes, and it’ll make a big difference,” Tate said.

Emergency responders had to tell Tate he’d hit his head on the pavement back in 2018. He said he has some lingering health issues, including eye problems that started after the incident.

Often for crossing guards, parents and school staff aren’t the issue. Typically it’s the people who aren’t involved with the school, other than needing to drive past it, that cause problems for crossing guards, Tate said.

“A lot of the parents do appreciate the crossing guards, but it’s the one or two bad apples that makes it bad,” Tate said.

Some parents called to check on him. Some students made cards.

“They were very nice to me,” Tate said. “The principal, the kids. They thought that I was coming back but I couldn’t come back.”