Re: Bus Safety
Why weren't the "professional" bus drivers looking way ahead? The photo from the Sullivan Journal clearly shows the accident scene was visible at least half a mile back, maybe even a mile or more. The back-up from the construction site that caused the tractor to slow/stop may have been hidden over the crest of a hill, but you would have seen brake lights at the top of the hill. This should have caused an alert.
Professionals look at intersecting roadways to see if anyone is entering an on-ramp, and change lanes in anticipation rather than waiting until a vehicle is alongside attempting to merge. I always look 3/4 mile to one mile ahead (where the twisting Northeast terrain allows). For example, If I see a slow tractor trailer crawling along that another tractor trailer I am overtaking will have to pass, I give the second semi room so the driver will not have to brake and then attempt to regain highway speed.
I can see a parked Troop Car at about 2 miles on a straightaway, and expect the drivers around me to do stupid things when they see it, too. (Though with the new low-profile LED light bars, at distances beyond a half mile some foreign sedans with roof racks give the profile of a Smokey rolling toward me from the opposite direction. The old interstate cars of the 1980s, even without a light bar, were a dead giveaway at one mile with the lowered ground clearance.)
As an old phart I hate to say this, but maybe the fact that the lead bus driver was 75 years old may have something to do with this? Just saying . . . . .
p.s. This week I get to see if I can keep my CDL medical card . . . .
Edit: As I think about it, driving solo being distracted only by the clowns on the radio(s) is a bit different than having your attention divided by a full busload of high schoolers on a field trip clowning around behind you. I've never had more than a dozen or so teens ride with me. Maybe I should cut the driver some more slack . . . .
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Someone said "Making good decisions comes from experience, experience comes from bad decisions." I say there are three kinds of people: those who learn from their mistakes, those who learn from the mistakes of others, and those who never learn.
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