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Gini
Top Member

USA
1249 Posts

Posted - 11/02/2018 :  02:52:48 AM  Show Profile  Send Gini an AOL message  Reply with Quote
https://abcnews.go.com/US/children-struck-killed-school-bus-stop-indiana/story?id=58848002

Rochester IN was my dad's hometown, believe they have a couple of different townships operating school sys there in Fulton Co. long time ago,next-door neighbor of my aunt drove for Rochester schools, but i think it was Fulton Co sys she tried to recruit me when i was there for my aunt's funeral.

after all these yrs, I STILL don't understand how you can not see the bus & flashing lights until after you kill the kids....

RonF
Top Member

867 Posts

Posted - 11/02/2018 :  08:48:25 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gini

https://abcnews.go.com/US/children-struck-killed-school-bus-stop-indiana/story?id=58848002

Rochester IN was my dad's hometown, believe they have a couple of different townships operating school sys there in Fulton Co. long time ago,next-door neighbor of my aunt drove for Rochester schools, but i think it was Fulton Co sys she tried to recruit me when i was there for my aunt's funeral.

after all these yrs, I STILL don't understand how you can not see the bus & flashing lights until after you kill the kids....




I'll explain my theory on this about not seeing a bus. This has been a hot topic here at our shop lately.

The driver stated that she didn't recognize the vehicle as a school bus, so that got me thinking. There were curves on the road and it was dark. The bus driver may have had the yellows on for a time longer than they should have and stopped and opened the door activating the reds at which time the kids darted out into the road in front of the pickup driver. You can mistake a school bus in the dark for farm equipment or trash trucks with yellow warning lights on. You cannot see the vehicle is yellow when approaching it in the dark. You can not see children on the side of the road until it's too late. Plus in my opinion a Thomas C-2 bus from the front does not look like a typical school bus. The "School bus" decal does not glow like the others because of the angle of the windshield. Line the 3 up and look at them. I posted pictures on facebook of the 3 manufactures in the dark and you can really see a difference of how much a C-2 does POP at you like the other two.

I believe that there was a sequence of unfortunate events that caused this. The root cause was not the fact that she ran the stop sign. The is more to it than that.

In all three of these fatalities there some things in common. It was dark, in the morning, kids were crossing the road and the drivers who hit them where all in their early 20's.

Contributing factors:

Time of day, dark. Stay with standard time so we are not picking up kids in total darkness
Kids crossing the road, Right side pick ups as much as possible. Kids don't move until all traffic is stopped. Drivers don't wave kids until all traffic has stopped.
Bus drivers activate your 8 way lights as you should.
Other motorist, put drivers education back in the classrooms. I would bet none of the 3 had it.
All driver, pay attention to what is around you while driving.

School buses. Lets but red warning light at the bumper level as well as overhead.
Move the stop sign lower on the side of the bus.

US Army retired CMBT
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Sherm
Top Member

USA
621 Posts

Posted - 11/02/2018 :  10:35:19 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Good points, Ron. We don't ever have all the facts on these issues when we hear about them. There are always factors in play to various degrees that come together differently in each individual situation.
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RonF
Top Member

867 Posts

Posted - 11/02/2018 :  1:11:02 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
http://www.schoolbusfleet.com/news/731949/motorist-in-fatal-crash-reportedly-said-she-didn-t-see-school-bus

Read this article, just release. I find what the bus driver said very troubling and was a question I had asked.

US Army retired CMBT
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baptistbusman1
Senior Member

USA
175 Posts

Posted - 11/04/2018 :  04:20:56 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
If a driver is properly trained, a stopsign runner should not even be a factor. The kids should not be allowed to move across the road until every car is stopped. Kid won’t listen and wait for you to motion them across, then they get sent to the principal and you call mom and dad. I had a kid that refused to wait for me to motion him across a few months ago, and after 3 days in detention, he now waits for my signal. If the stop is in a blind curve, the stop needs moved. Just because the kids house is there doesn’t mean that’s where he has to get on.

I like to ask drivers who come in with stop arm violations daily, who can manage to get drivers license, color, make, tire size, and what brand shoes the driver of the car that ran their sign, who was watching the kids when you were getting all this information?

The more boobs that are hired to drive a bus, and the more the supervisors let them “do it their way,” the more stuff like this is going to happen and be in the news.

I was formally Baptistbusman. However, I lost my password, and had not updated my email address.

Here is a link to my old posts. http://www.schoolbusfleet.com/forum/search.asp?mode=DoIt&MEMBER_ID=1846
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Thomasbus24
Administrator

USA
4544 Posts

Posted - 11/05/2018 :  04:41:17 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I'm with you guys, that line from the driver is the scariest I've read in a long while.

My state's pickup/dropoff procedure is kind of cumbersome, but it works. I don't care how long little Johnny and Jane have to stand there, they are not crossing 'til traffic *stops*.

I've already heard the big, talking heads on TV saying "WELL, just redo the law so that no kids have to cross the road!" Ok, come on out to the real world sometime and tell me how to do that with no more staff and buses.

I once had a woman call me, claiming to be bus driver from another state who was passing through and had to sit and wait "for a long time" while we did a crossover and that it was just ridiculous that the kids had to wait like that. I told her that if she really is a school bus driver, that she was an idiot that needed to find another job, and hung up on her. Not exactly taking the high road, but safety is #1, not being the first one done with the route.
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Gini
Top Member

USA
1249 Posts

Posted - 11/05/2018 :  8:55:47 PM  Show Profile  Send Gini an AOL message  Reply with Quote
i'm retired now, & enjoy getting "stuck" behind or across from loading/unloading busses, i get the traffic stopped safely behind me. i can't tell you the number of times i've driven in the middle of the afternoon, cars don't see the busses stopped & swoosh right by. i would follow a high school bus thru a section of the county where i used to drive, be behind it, & blow my horn at the traffic on opposite side of road, pointing at the bus w/ the stop signs & lights going- so many surprised looks when they realized they had just passed a stopped bus! on that road, you couldn't have crossing-over stops, it was too dangerous. doesn't matter how inconvenient or costly it is to run 2 busses on the same route from the same school in that county, there are too many lawyers ready to sue the county to take a chance (suburb in VA outside of Wash DC) i live in the next county, they're better at watching the busses, which is good, as their stops are really unsafe....

1Peter 1:3
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