The Simpson College Athletics Department is sticking to travel safety guidelines in light of the Iowa Lakes Community College bus accident, which occurred Wednesday, Feb.11. The department said it has not made any changes regarding its travel policies for Simpson students, but will continue prioritizing the safety of the school’s athletes and coaches.
The bus contained 33 people, and many have suffered various degrees of injuries, including the death of a 19-year-old student athlete. This raised concern on whether Simpson College is going to change their bus policy, athletic travel safety and procedures of transportation in the light of this accident.
Heath Moneck, Simpson College’s interim athletic director, said the department has not discussed its travel policies following the Iowa Lakes incident.
“We have not revisited our travel procedures or policies, to my knowledge,” Moneck said.
However, Moneck strongly emphasized how Simpson already has safety precautions in place for athletic travel.
“We make every coach sign a distracted driver policy,” Moneck said. “Agreeing that they will not be texting and driving or on their phones in any capacity.”
Simpson primarily works with Windstar Lines for all athletic teams traveling to away meets. According to Moneck, the bus company follows federal regulations which limits the drivers’ hours on the road.
“Windstar has a policy where, you know it’s the federal government, where they’re only allowed to drive 10 hours in a day, or 10 consecutive hours as well,” Moneck said.
Safety of the athletes is also determined by road and weather conditions. If it is unsafe to travel due, competitions could be postponed or canceled to steer clear of putting student-athletes at risk.
“Our coaching staff do a great job that will never try to put our students in any harm’s way, so we’re very vigilant on potentially poor driving conditions,” Moneck said.
Senior baseball player, Dalton Ferrin, spoke on his initial thoughts when hearing about the Iowa Lakes accident.
“I heard it from teammates, and my reaction was kind just like, I knew I had an old teammate on that team, so I was kind of just worried about him and just what the result was and what happened,” Ferrin said.
Ferrin mentioned how he feels fairly safe when traveling for athletic games, but this incident brought up some concerns about traveling at night. “To some extent, I think at night driving can be questionable,” he said.
He said he also trusts Windstar, as the corporation is trustworthy.
However, Ferrin also had some concerns on the process for individuals who drive the buses for the teams.
“It seems like there’s not very in-depth background checks for who gets to drive the van, particularly,” Ferin said.
Despite the recent misfortune, Moneck said student safety remains to be the Athletic Department’s top priority.
“Our number one priority is our student safety. So we’ll never put that in jeopardy,” Moneck said.
