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Monday, October 26, 2009

School Bus Safety

"This is directed to the driver of the black car on Campground Road on Monday morning at 7:10. What was so important that you could not stop or even slow when my child was about to get on the bus? Yes, it was a bit dark, but the bus lights were on and it was almost to a complete stop, but you flew right through without one thought about my child's safety. The bus takes less than 30 seconds to stop and load my child. You couldn't wait 30 seconds out of your busy morning?

Unfortunately you are not the only irresponsible driver on this road. This has happened many times, luckily without dire consequences. You are in good company, though. I've even witnessed the same with a local sheriff's deputy that has children of his own."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder how may tickets are issued by the sheriffs department during the school year for passing a school but. I bet you can count them on one hand. Now check the speeding tickets you may need a caculator. They should give out more bus violations

Anonymous said...

if you can get the tag number of a vehicle that passes a bus and call MSP they will investigate i drove a school bus for a number of years and had vehicles do it all the time. i had several repeat offenders and believe that they got fines and points on their license for it

Anonymous said...

If I could have caught the driver, he'd have more to worry about than a point on his license.

Anonymous said...

You're all missing the point, if the bus was almost stopped, that means the yellow lights were flashing and not the red lights, which most drivers don't stop for yellow lights, in fact they usually speed up. The bus should be completely stopped before you let your child near the road and it's red flashers should be on. If he passed at that point then he's at fault. I hate when the bus goes so slow and never puts the red lights on, just keeps flashing the yellow even when it's stopped then gives me dirty looks when I stop short. I can't read minds.

Anonymous said...

Since I saw the incident, the yellow lights were flashing, but before the car reached the front of the bus, the red lights were flashing. The driver could clearly see that the bus was almost to a complete stop as he approached and that a child was standing there waiting to cross the road to get on the bus. At no point did the driver even attempt to slow, even when the lights turned red.

My children have always been told to wait to make sure that the approaching cars actually stop due to incidences such as these. If he had started across when the bus stopped and the red lights were flashing, he would have indeed been struck if he hadn't waited.

Anonymous said...

Well to be fair here, it takes way more than 30 seconds to be stuck behind a bus. Yeah it MIGHT take only 30 seconds for them to pick up your kids, but then they drive slow as SH!t and make stops every 5 seconds, so getting stuck behind a bus can cost you 20 minutes not 30 seconds mam.

I agree you should stop for kids getting on a bus, theres no need for that, but school bus drivers should let people pass them if they see a car or group of cars stuck behind them for a while because it is very annoying and frustrating to be stuck behind a slow, frequently stopping bus when you have somewhere to be

Anonymous said...

12:05am, not saying you're wrong or the guy isn't at fault, but you should really be on the side of the road that the bus doors are on before it stops, it's way safer esp if you're not with your child-like watching from the door. I always slow way down when I see the yellow lights but I end up less than about 10 feet away from the bus and stopping short when the yellow lights are blinking,if they were red then I stop about two car lengths away.

Anonymous said...

2:44 My children are safer in their driveway. Across the road where the bus stops is a large county ditch with only a little clearance on the shoulder.

12:27 And this bus driver does let cars that are behind her go around AFTER the children are safely on the bus.

Anonymous said...

3:35pm, I wasn't trying to offend, there's no possible way I could know the exact situation of your bus stop. Next time, make sure you get the tag number so you can report him.

Anonymous said...

if your that worried put the kid in your car and drive them to school