Crossing guards face life-threatening dangers on the job

In many ways, Taylor was lucky. Despite the broken bones and the pins and metal plates to heal his body from that August 2018 collision, he returned to work.

Across the country, school crossing guards like Taylor, who stand in the cold, rain or heat to protect children, face the risk of injuries from drivers who may be distracted or in a hurry.

An investigation by The Associated Press and Cox Media Group Television Stations found that over the past 10 years, hundreds of school crossing guards — many of them of retirement age or older -- have suffered injuries on the job after being hit by a vehicle, and dozens of them have died.

A full accounting is impossible. No federal agencies and just two states track how many crossing guards are injured or killed each year. And local police accident reports often have no code to distinguish between school crossing guards and other pedestrians hit near schools.

“Officers rarely stop to consider whether the injured ‘pedestrian’ was on duty.” said former Cornelius, North Carolina, Police Chief Bence Hoyle.

A database compiled by AP and Cox Media Group shows that 230 school crossing guards across 37 states and Washington, DC, were struck by vehicles. Nearly three dozen were killed in these collisions. The cases, compiled from incident and accident reports requested from nearly 200 police departments, represent only a portion of guards injured and killed nationwide.

The investigation shows that in these cases, drivers who hit or even kill crossing guards rarely face serious consequences. Of the incidents involving 183 crossing guards where an outcome could be determined, nearly half resulted in traffic citations — such as “failure to yield to a pedestrian.” About a quarter of the drivers weren’t ticketed at all, while just over a quarter faced criminal charges. Police said several factors go into whether or not a driver who hits a crossing guard is charged, including things such as weather conditions or negligence by the person operating the vehicle.

Taken as a whole, these incidents highlight a largely underreported problem: Crossing guards, tasked with protecting children as they navigate busy streets in front of schools, can be casualties of dangerous roadways.

“It’s a huge responsibility to step out in front of a vehicle,” said Dacia Maisonave, a crossing guard trainer in Seminole County, Florida. “It is unfortunate that our crossing guards don’t have a lot of laws. The only thing they really have to protect them is the stop paddle.”

‘Just slow down’

The lack of a system to track injuries and deaths of crossing guards has hampered efforts to develop better safety measures or even assess just how dangerous the job is, experts say. School crossing guard protection remains a patchwork of state and local policies.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes survey data for on-the-job injuries and deaths across most industries, but school crossing guards are included in a job category with road construction flaggers — and the agency does not publish a fatality rate for it.

The AP calculated its own fatality rates for nearly 200 job classifications with at least 10,000 workers and 10 deaths in 2023, the most recent year of available records. Crossing guards and flaggers were in the top fifth of deadliest jobs, the AP’s analysis found, on par with power line installers and air transportation workers. It’s the only occupation in that top fifth that interacts with children daily.

Other federal agencies also rarely capture details specific to school crossing guards’ injuries or deaths. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s records on fatal accidents specify whether a school bus was involved or the crash happened within a designated school zone. But no information is captured about whether a victim was a crossing guard.

Very few accident reports filed through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration mention school crossing guards.

Only two states have made a serious effort to track crossing guard safety: New Jersey and Massachusetts.

After examining the deaths of 16 crossing guards struck by motor vehicles and more than 230 injuries between 1993 and 2008, the New Jersey Department of Health launched a program aimed at crossing guard safety in February.

Officials in New Jersey said they target school zones for recurring safety inspections and have already issued eight serious violations and 30 others to employers for noncompliance. But even this pioneering effort faces limitations.

“Since there are no crossing guard standards in New Jersey, there is only so much we can do but to make sure they have appropriate training,” says Assistant State Labor Commissioner Justin Baker.

New Jersey state officials said they work with local police to provide training and proper equipment, including reflective vests.

Michael Flanagan, director of the Department of Labor Standards in Massachusetts, said his state began tracking school crossing guard injuries and deaths when a guard was fatally struck in 2012. In 2022, he said the state mandated that cities and towns report crossing guard injuries.

Labor experts say more can be done to make the job safer. Among possible solutions that remain underused in the U.S, experts say, are installing smart crosswalk systems with flashing LED lights, raised crosswalks, automated speed cameras or requiring all guards to wear high-visibility gear.

Flanagan said ultimately the most effective measure for protecting cross guards from injuries and deaths comes from talking to and educating motorists.

“Crossing guards are out there, and just slow down and be aware of that and look out for them,” he said.

Close calls and deaths

School crossing guards are employed by local police departments, school districts or private companies hired by schools. Many of them are older adults or retirees — of the 160 cases where AP and Cox Media Group were able to document ages, more than half were older than 65.

In interviews, many guards say they enjoy their jobs. But they also recount almost daily close calls with hurried and distracted drivers who ignore posted warning signs and the guards themselves, even in crosswalks.

Travis Callis, a former crossing guard in Martinsburg, West Virginia, said while he’s never been hurt, he’s had several close run-ins, including an instance where a car was so close he could feel its heat on the back of his legs.

“I’m holding the sign up and they’re just driving at me,” he said.

In some cases, collisions can kill.

Last year, Stanley Brucker, 61, was working as a crossing guard at Fort Mill Elementary School in South Carolina when he was struck by a car as he was holding a stop sign and directing traffic.

Video captured by a passing school bus shows a vehicle hitting Brucker and flipping him over the car as he stands in the crosswalk. He was transported to a nearby hospital but later died.

Brucker was the fourth crossing guard to be hit or killed while working for the school district. His death caused many of the district's crossing guards to refuse to show up for two days after they learned the driver who hit him wouldn’t face charges.

“There is no indication that the driver of the vehicle was driving in a dangerous or reckless manner,” local prosecutors in the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said in a statement at the time.

Brucker’s family sees it differently and has filed a lawsuit against the school district and the driver who struck him.

The lawsuit accuses the Fort Mill School District of choosing locations for crossing guards that were not “reasonably safe,” citing “the actual conditions on the site in the middle of a busy highway and by the numerous past instances of injury to crossing guards.” No trial date has been set for the case to be heard.

In response to questions about the lawsuit, a spokesperson for the district wrote: “In light of the pending litigation, in which the actions of traffic guards employed by the company providing guards to the district is an issue, the district, on advice of counsel, is unable to respond further.” The Fort Mill School District and the driver who hit Brukcer have both asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Before the start of this school year, district officials informed parents that public schools in Fort Mill will not have traffic guards. The district has installed a new traffic system to help improve safety in the absence of traffic guards.

Rutledge Young, an attorney in Charleston, South Carolina, representing Brucker’s family, said Brucker was doing what he was told to do.

“I believe that Mr. Brucker was doing his job and was killed as a result,” Young said.

Across the country, data compiled by AP and Cox Media Group shows similar instances of guards being killed and drivers not facing criminal charges.

James Arthur Holland of Lexington, Kentucky, a crossing guard with the local police department, was hit and killed in 2023 by a driver while working outside an elementary school.

Police found that the driver did not have insurance or a driver’s license, and the vehicle’s registration had expired.

Police said the incident was not a result of speeding or impairment, but environmental conditions. The driver was given various traffic citations, but no criminal charges were filed.

Kevin VanFleet, a detective in the Simi Valley Police Department in California, said each collision must be looked at individually. He said several factors go into deciding if a driver is going to be charged, including what police -- who rarely witness the accident -- find during their investigation and whether local prosecutors feel charges are warranted.

“Not everybody that is involved in a collision, let’s say, with a pedestrian in a crosswalk, or perhaps a crossing guard in a crosswalk, is going to receive an infraction ticket. It depends on the severity of it,” VanFleet said

One common explanation for drivers hitting crossing guards that emerges from a review of traffic and incident reports is the glare of sunlight.

“The sun was in my eyes,” appears repeatedly in reports obtained by AP and Cox Media Group.

Last year, Patricia Davis, a guard in Monroe County, Georgia, about an hour east of Atlanta, was hit by a truck while helping students cross.

The driver told law enforcement that the sun was directly in his eyes, and he didn’t see Davis until his truck struck her. Davis was taken to the hospital after suffering minor injuries. The driver was not charged. Police labeled the collision an accident.

Dave Peavy, 76, a crossing guard in Gardner, Kansas, wasn’t as fortunate. Peavy, a Vietnam veteran who wore a Santa hat and passed out candy to kids crossing his intersection, was hit and killed by a car as he stepped out to stop traffic. The driver, who was not charged, told police that sunlight blinded him, and he never saw Peavy.

Crossing guards said these cases and dozens more like them highlight how drivers rarely face serious consequences when one of them is severely injured or killed.

Beyond distracted drivers and the glare of sunlight, experts point to multiple other factors that compromise crossing guard safety.

The higher hoods of today’s SUVs and trucks create larger blind spots that reduce visibility. Many school zones lack adequate traffic-slowing measures like speed bumps or automated enforcement cameras. And many local roads are designed to prioritize vehicle flow over pedestrian safety and have inadequate sight lines and insufficient buffer zones around crosswalks.

Still, former Police Chief Hoyle in North Carolina said drivers should be held accountable for injuring or killing crossing guards. He suggests raising speeding tickets in school zones to $1,000 and implementing license plate recognition systems to track down reckless drivers.

“The penalties should be much higher, making drivers think twice about speeding through a school zone,” Hoyle said.

VanFleet, the Simi Valley Police Department detective in California, said greater police presence in school zones would likely be more effective than fines.

“It’s not so much the cost of the infraction it would be that would cause a deterrence,” he said. “It would be having more officers out there doing more enforcement.

Not enough is being done

Among the incidents where AP and Cox Media Group could determine an outcome, around a quarter resulted in criminal charges. About 40% of those criminal charges occurred when the driver fled the scene.

Last year in Uvalde, Texas, elementary school crossing guard George Juarez was hospitalized after a pickup truck hit him and the driver fled the scene.

The driver hit the crossing guard after making an illegal left turn as Juarez attempted to redirect the truck that struck him.

The driver was charged with driving while intoxicated with an open container, and failure to stop and render aid.

The driver that hit and killed Steven Winn, a 67-year-old crossing guard in Layton, Utah, just after he helped a group of elementary students cross to school, was also charged with an even more serious offense — negligent homicide.

Families who lose loved ones in fatal traffic accidents say the unexpected financial burden can be staggering, since many guards are retirees who work part-time and don't have benefits. Dozens of current and former guards or their families have set up GoFundMe pages to help cover medical and funeral costs.

Those who survive hits can endure a long, painful recovery as well as mounting medical expenses.

Ron Ferguson was hit by a truck in 2020 while directing traffic in front of a local high school in Texarkana, Texas. The collision left him with a cracked skull, missing teeth and lingering damage to his left ear. Ferguson spent two weeks sedated while recovering.

He couldn’t breathe on his own or get out of bed, and needed nearly a month of grueling rehabilitation. Today, he said, he has mostly recovered, but some scars from the accident remain and he still has trouble with his memory.

“There are times I could see people now that I cannot remember their names,” he said.” But I can see the face. And then gradually I’ll start remembering.”

Crossing guards say they aren’t just waiting for officials to act to protect them.

Many of them have organized on social platforms like TikTok through series like “Crossing Guard Chronicles,” set up by former Atlanta crossing guard Shante Joseph to educate the public about the dangers guards face. Others have joined Facebook groups like the National Association of School Crossing Guards, a platform that allows guards to share experiences and advocate for reform.

They are also pushing their employers to provide items they think will make the job safer, such as body cameras, which some have already bought with their own money.

The guards said they would also like to see increased police supervision in school zones and license plate recognition systems to help police spot bad drivers.

Ultimately, they say they would like to see drivers treat crossing guard safety as seriously as the safety of the children they protect.

Still, despite the daily dangers they face, many school crossing guards say they continue to enjoy what they see as an important and much-needed function.

That’s why Anthony Taylor, the school crossing guard in Indianapolis, said he returned to his duties as a crossing guard after suffering severe injuries.

“I like what I do, and I enjoy being around the public,” Taylor said. “That’s what made me decide that, hey, I’m going back to finish out what I was there to start.”

This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Cox Media Group’s local television stations. It is part of The AP Local Investigative Reporting Program. The program offers AP members workshops, reporting tools, and collaboration with AP journalists to help apply investigative techniques.

Dasia Garner is the 2025 Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting Intern. Gary Fields and River Zhang contributed reporting.

Contributing to this story from Cox Media Group Television Stations were: Jodie Fleischer, Josh Wade, Ted Daniel, WFXT Boston, Tina Terry and Michael Praats, WSOC Charlotte, Michele Newell and Mitchell Lierman, WSB-TV Atlanta, John Bedell, WHIO-TV Dayton, Shannon Butler, WFTV Orlando, Deja Mayfield, WJAX/WFOX Jacksonville, Brooke Gardner, KIRO Seattle, Amy Hudak and Alex Popichak, WPXI Pittsburgh.