do you want to go to work in the ND oil feilds

By LAUREN DONOVAN | Bismarck Tribune | Posted: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 11:50 pm | (30) Comments Font Size:Default font sizeLarger font size LAUREN DONOVAN | Bismarck Tribune Sgt. Darcy Aberle of the Trooper on a Bus program keeps an eye on the highway traffic while Trenton school student Rylee Stearns peeks over his shoulder.




TRENTON, N.D. ' Cheri Vondall gets within a mile of the Trenton school and a semi pulling a flatbed trailer pulls out onto the highway in front of her.
The semi driver cut his timing too short and forced Vondall, with a load of students returning from a science fair in Williston, to pull her foot off the gas and give the guy plenty of room.
"I wish the Highway Patrolman could have seen this," she said, referring to Sgt. Darcy Aberle, who made the trip from Trenton school into Williston, but didn't make the return trip, about 16 miles.
Aberle rode the bus while another trooper followed in a patrol car to get a taste of what Vondall experiences twice a day every day on the regular route with 40 to 50 kids who come to Trenton school from Williston, about 14 miles away.
The troopers got to experience driving by another Highway Patrolman sorting through an intersection accident between two semi trucks several miles from the school.
The program is called "Trooper on a Bus," and lately it's been stepped up out in the oil patch, where buses are competing with the heaviest industrial traffic anywhere in the state.
The patrol picked the Trenton route because it's on a busy stretch of state Highway 1804 connecting oil field development in both Montana and North Dakota.
School Superintendent Steve Cascaden figures at least 4,000 semis and mixed traffic drive on the highway every day. He should know; he can see it all from his office window.
Vondall said the problem isn't that drivers ignore her flashing lights and stop arm, though a few do.
It's the pace, she said.
"People are all in a hurry. They all go flying by," she said. "I told the superintendent if I make it through this year without an accident, I'll be going really good."
Even the kids notice the traffic.
Jacob Tostenson, 5, with red hair and dark brown eyes, can barely see out the window, but he can see enough.
"I don't like all the semis out there. One went so fast in front of us, it almost crashed into us," he said.
Zoey Reyna, 12, remembers that day, too. "Everyone was like, 'Did you see that?' Sometimes I feel safe on the bus, but not all the time. But they are supposed to make a road around town for the traffic," she said.
She's referring to plans by the state Department of Transportation to spend $10 million on a lengthy bypass around Williston. It would provide a lot of relief for this particular bus route, since the heaviest traffic is closest to Williston.
Vondall, the bus driver, said she's learned to do a lot of "chicken bobbing" ' that is, throwing her head forward to get an open, long view of any intersections she drives through.
"There used to be a time when I'd be the only person on the highway," she said.
Obviously, those days are over. Aberle said the Trooper on a Bus program was jacked up in the oil patch after the troopers started hearing more complaints from bus drivers at annual safety workshops.
Running a bus stop arm will cost a driver six points on his license. Aberle said all it takes is a license plate of the offender and the registered owner is automatically responsible.
Cascaden, the superintendent, said Trenton runs only two buses and would run four if it could get and keep more drivers ' yet another challenge in the oil patch where drivers are paid pretty big money.
Cascaden said bus drivers have to use all their defensive skills.
"They've just got to watch for those guys, and they really have to be careful. Some of those guys, when they see the bus strobe light, I'm not even sure they know what it is," he said.
So far, the Trooper on a Bus went along on a school route in Alexander and wrote no citations, Aberle said. After Trenton, the next program will be run in Divide County, near Crosby.


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i think its a unfortunate story, i don't like reading story's like this. stronger enforcement is coming to the area, because of all the idiots behind the wheel.