ORLANDO, Fla — They’re out there every school day, standing in the middle of busy intersections with nothing more than a stop sign, a vest, and a whistle. But what you might not realize is just how dangerous the job of a school crossing guard can be.
9 investigates teamed up with our sister stations around the country and the Associated Press to identify the number of crossing guards hit or killed in the last ten years; we found no official source tracks that data nationwide.
Only two states mandate that law enforcement track and report all crossing guard accidents, Florida is not one of them.
“I was in a coma from Wednesday to Saturday,” said Gislaine Booker, “I broke 12 bones, my hip, knee, ankle, tibia… even my head.”
In 2019, Booker was working as a crossing guard in Winter Garden, helping students cross busy Highway 50, when a truck flipped during a crash and landed right on top of her.
The driver was cited for careless driving and had her license suspended for three months.
Our months-long investigation scoured news reports and social media to compile data on crossing guards who were hit. We contacted law enforcement for more than 225 accidents we found and obtained police records and outcomes for 180 of them.
More than 70% of those drivers received just traffic tickets or no charges at all.
At least 40 of the crashes involving crossing guards were hit and run accidents. Law enforcement was never able to identify at least six of the drivers who fled the scene.
Just nine days after Booker’s accident, a 78-year-old crossing guard was hospitalized after being hit on Chickasaw Trail; the driver received only a traffic ticket.
A popular job with senior citizens and retirees, more than half of the crossing guards for whom we could identify ages, were over 65 at the time of the crash.
At least 32 of the crashes were deadly, including one in Florida.
We spoke with several guards who say they love protecting children but believe their safety is being disregarded.
Susan Creamer, a former crossing guard, was hit by a distracted driver in 2019. After recovering from a broken leg, she went back to work to conquer her fear, but says the anxiety never went away.
“I always had the fear in my head that I could get hit again,” Creamer said.
Our investigation found at least 17 Florida crossing guards have been hit since 2015.
Dacia Maisonave, who supervises Seminole County’s crossing guard program, says her team trains for every possible scenario, but she believes Florida laws do not do enough to protect them.
Maisonave said construction workers have more legal protections than school crossing guards.
“I’m glad that they have that, but I really believe that our crossing guards should have very similar laws or should have a lot more protection because they’re stepping out in front of vehicles,” Maisonave said.
She plans to raise the issue at Florida’s next statewide meeting of crossing guard supervisors, in hopes that the Department of Transportation will support stronger safety measures, or at the very least, start tracking incidents.
Now 75, Gislaine Booker no longer works as a crossing guard.
She said when she became a crossing guard, she was never worried about getting hit.
Now, she can’t believe how quickly things changed.
“They always say slow down because there were kids, just two minutes before there were children with me.”
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