The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced this week that school districts and school bus operators seeking background information on prospective new commercial drivers via the Internet will receive full driver histories that include crash severity.

The policy change comes on the heels of a fatal crash in February caused by a Philadelphia-area school bus driver. Frederick R. Poust III, a driver for Student Transportation, Inc., has been charged with vehicular manslaughter after he allegedly killed a 27-year-old man on Feb. 17 while illegally turning left into a middle school parking lot. Prior to the crash, Poust is shown via an on-board video camera running at least 10 stop signs and driving erratically. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said Poust, who was fatigued and was talking on a wireless headset before the crash, lied to police at the scene when he said he slowed the bus before turning left into the path of the oncoming car.

In 1999, Poust was also cited for running a stop sign while talking on a cell phone and striking a car, killing a 2-year-old girl in the process.

A spokeswoman for Penn DOT said school districts and school bus contractors have always had the ability to receive full, certified driver histories as well as three- and 10-year histories via U.S. mail. The new policy will extend these full histories to Internet requests beginning this October if not sooner, but those records will not be certified.

Additionally, school districts and bus contractors can receive information on the severity of any crash in which a commercial driver applicant has been involved. Previous reports indicated the date of the crash, the county in which it occurred and the types of vehicles involved, but they did not indicate if the crash resulted in property damage, injuries or fatalities. But the report will not indicate who was at fault.

"These are some additional aids that they now have when determining if they want to hire somebody as a school bus driver," the spokeswoman said. "The onus shifts to contractors or school districts to do further research."

Qualifications for becoming a school bus driver, namely the background checks, physicals and classroom and behind-the-wheel training, remain unchanged.

Selina Pittenger, executive director of the Pennsylvania School Bus Association, said contractor company members were generally supportive of the change. Some, however, expressed concern that the policy could adversely affect their driver pools, as school district customers might require that any bus driver with a previous crash history, no matter the severity, be prohibited from driving.