School Buses

Part of my past driving has involved city buses and school buses. Let me point out a few things. First of all, if you see the yellows flashing PREPARE TO STOP KNUCKLEHEAD! Secondly, not all school bus drivers were once big rig drivers, many have little experience and are taking on the job, which is generally not paid well and is part time, to make the ends meet. These drivers have upwards of 96 high energy children ranging from 5 year old to 19 year old. They are very busy maintaining control of the children, navigating a bus with a whopping 15 feet of rear tail swing in and around narrow tight residential streets. The drivers you see doing things "not right" or whatever, might be a new bus driver who just heard one of the teenagers in the back scream, "bus driver, Jason has a gun!" Or "bus driver, sally is throwing up on Johnny!"

I personally have dealt with all kinds of these situations on a school bus, not a gun but a knife, plenty of puking kids, several fist fights, horse playing, etc.

Not trying to defend the driver if they turned the lights from yellow to red without time for you to stop, but hopefully trying to give you a small bit of insight as to what he or she is probably dealing with in her vehicle.

 

Kudos to you for driving School Bus. No way I could do that unless I had a machine gun and a license to kill.

 

A 4-wheeler will blindly follow a truck past most anything. Be careful

 

I said the same thing for YEARS! But let me tell you, after doing it for a little bit, you really miss those little boogers during their breaks from school. The last day of school was always a sad one. I did it in a small town and you got to know each kid AND their parents personally, so being able to watch them grow each year was very rewarding. Probably the hardest job i ever left.

 

Necessary? Probably not. Required by law? Yup. We don't have to like or agree with it. We just have to do it.

Now that you know the pickup drill and location for that kid, you can avoid it. Maybe come in from the other end of the block?