An instant of distraction at just the wrong time can result in devastation. Please, please drive with your mind engaged at all times.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by ARman:


People are fucking morons. I'm a school bus driver and last week we started back to school, on my first stop, I had a jackass speed ***SPEED*** by my bus, stop arm out, lights flashing and kids out, including kindergarteners.

Think people, that little guy could have darted out into the street, then what?

I and ever other bus driver see it all too often. The first day of school I had two jackasses speed by my bus.

It really bothers me that people just don't seem to give a fuck. We are dealing with children's lives. Kids are unpredictable. Even the older ones, most of them don't even look, not at me directing them or the traffic.

No matter how much I fuss, it seems like most don't listen to me about this.

Prayers for the departed child, the child's family, the officer and hospital staff.


Please, drive safe!


ARman

I think what needs to be standard equipment on every school bus are a couple license plate reader cameras that catch these speeding assholes and they get huge fines and possibly some jail time.

Between the two campuses that make up where I work is a school zone and when I'm traveling from one campus to the other and the 15 mph sign is lit, there's ALWAYS at least one oblivious moron FLYING through there at 40-50 mph, it's unbelievable to me!

In my neighbor hood which is ruale, it's not uncommon to see a police officer riding on the bus and a patrol car shadowing the bus. They get a lot of people passing stopped buses at the start of the year.

I believe the issue is that an observed infraction must be articulated to a magistrate who issues a warrant for arrest. Perhaps if people who make observations would go to the magistrate and swear out a warrant the police could effect a physical arrest.

quote:

Originally posted by wreckdiver:
Around here the police do give a shit, thankfully. When a plate # is caught, they get a visit and a fat ticket.

They use to, but last year it seemed to have stopped. I don't know what has changed, but we report it and nothing happens.

If it goes to court, we (bus driver) are required to testify to what we saw.

It angers me because we have had some close calls, thankful the bus driver and child were paying attention.



I just don't understand some people. When I was a kid I had two friends hit by cars infront of me, both times narrowing miss me.

The first time my good friend and I were riding our bikes through a church parking lot. A van comes speeding by me, clipping my handlebars and hits my friend, sucking him up between the front drivers tire and fender. The fire department had to jack the van up and remove the tire.

He had friction burns and acouple of broken bones and a concussion. He was laughing the whole time. Shock. He was ok for the most part.


The second time my friend and I were standing at the city bus stop and a woman in a 1979 Ford station wagon, the same as my dad had, jumped the curve brushed me and pinned my friend to a phone poll. It crushed his pelvis and he now pees and poops into a bag.

He blamed me for some reason and I lost a friend because of it and his life was forever changed.


I love to drive, but I always try to never get distracted, I know that it only takes a split second and things can change for the worse for you and/or the other person.

Last school year, after dropping off my last student I had a guy run a stop sign and hit the side of my bus. It hurt me slightly, but almost killed him. Hitting 10 ton of bus isn't a good game plan.

It caused me great mental pain wondering if I could have done anything differently, though he was 100% at fault, I still felt that I could have done something to have kept it from happening.

So please drive safely.

ARman

quote:

Originally posted by cmr076:

quote:

Originally posted by ARman:

People are fucking morons. I'm a school bus driver and last week we started back to school, on my first stop, I had a jackass speed ***SPEED*** by my bus, stop arm out, lights flashing and kids out, including kindergarteners.

Think people, that little guy could have darted out into the street, then what?
ARman

I assume you take their plate #'s and what not down, right? I'd imagine the police don't take that stuff lightly?

ARman, expanding on cmr076's question: Have you considered installing a Go-Pro on your bus? The video evidence would answer all the questions that the police might have about your report, and could result in some well-deserved consequences for the bad drivers.

Young kids are pretty quick.

Turning into a neighborhood street, I saw a kid that was stroller age right in the middle of the street and as I stopped, he just sat in the middle of the road.

Stopped the car, got to the kid, and I see two adults half a short block away on the sidewalk chatting. I yelled out, "Hey, is this one of yours?" And, yep, one of them owned up.

I'm glad I saw the kid; my wife never did and wondered why I was stopping.