School bus driver involved in road rage on Shaker Road fired by district

Date: 11/13/2014

EAST LONGMEADOW – On Shaker Road at around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 21, Stanley Bierowka, a 70-year-old district bus driver, allegedly punched the windshield of a delivery driver’s car while eight to 10 students from Meadow Brook School were left unattended.

Police Sgt. Patrick Manley said the department filed a complaint against Bierowka, a resident of Glenoak Drive in Springfield in Palmer District Court on Oct. 27. The requested offenses include operating without a valid driver’s license, unsafe operations, disorderly conduct, assault, and risk of injury to a child.

“The officers felt that the children were put at risk of injury by being left unattended on the bus,” he said. "Who knows, a kid might have got off the bus; who knows what could have happened.”

All of the charges that Bierowka faces are for misdemeanor crimes, he added. A show cause hearing will be scheduled by the court to resolve the issues before the magistrate.

“Sometimes complaints are resolved at a show cause hearing,” Manley said. “Other times, the complaint is not resolved at a show cause hearing and the clerk of courts issues a criminal complaint and he [would] go before a judge and be arraigned on those charges."

Superintendent of Schools Gordon Smith said Bierowka is no longer working in the East Longmeadow Public School District.

“Mr. Bierowka had a license and went through the process of renewing his certificate for school bus operations just before the school year started at the end of August,” Manley said.

On Sept. 1, Bierowka’s license expired, roughly a week after he was approved for his school bus operations certificate, he added. Bierowka continued to drive with an expired licensed for about two months.

The incident began on Bond Avenue at around 11:30 when Bierowka waited for an opening in the flow of traffic in order to take a left turn, heading south on Shaker Road, Manley explained.

The delivery driver was also heading south on Shaker Road and pulled his van into a driveway to make a delivery nearby, which could have possibly prevented the bus from pulling out, he said.

“The bus driver; that created some frustration for him,” Manley added. “There were verbal gestures and remarks when the delivery driver made this little maneuver here.”

The delivery driver did not perform an illegal driving maneuver, he noted.

“The bus driver eventually pulls out, goes down the road, [drops off another child], and turns around,” Manley said.

At this time, the bus driver saw the delivery driver and parked the bus in the northbound travel lane to confront him, he explained. The area where the bus illegally parked also blocked the travel lane, creating backup in traffic.

“I believe that if you drive down [Shaker Road] at 35 miles per hour, you would have driven right past,” Manley said. “I think, in my mind, that the bus driver was kind of looking for him. I don't know or not; that's just the human nature part of it.”

A female witness told police officers that she saw the bus driver punch the window of the delivery driver's van, he said. The glass in the window did not break.

After the incident, police officers stopped the bus and the delivery driver on Kibbe Road. The delivery driver reported the incident and had been following the bus since the altercation ended.

Smith said the school department sent out a new bus to pick up the children in order to bring them home.

School officials informed parents and guardians of the incident and that students were delayed 20 to 30 minutes. All of the children on the bus arrived home safely.