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Old 11-23-2016, 07:33 PM   #21
Skoolie
 
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Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Bemidji MN
Posts: 209
Year: 1998
Coachwork: Carpenter Body
Chassis: International 3800
Engine: DT466
Rated Cap: 65 to Zero. Folding Chair
We had our first snow storm of the season in my area last Friday. 18 inches of snow on top of freezing rain the night before. An empty bus was on the way to start its pick up routine and the driver lost it on ice and hit the ditch.

The speed was 41mph at the time of control loss.
The bus entered the ditch at 29 mph and overturned to the passenger side.
The bus made two revolutions coming to final rest upside down along the tree line roughly 60 feet from the roadway.
The driver was uninjured and was standing on the shoulder waiting for responders.
The bus suffered damage but, did not cause a failure of any critical structural features of the bus. The roof panels were dented inward, the wheels were slightly bent on axis inward and both large round warning light lens on the passenger side broke away from the bus on the first impact.
The assemblies were still operational.
Honestly as a skoolie owner, I was impressed with the strength of the bus body. The speed, direction of impact, degree of revolution and final resting position were not ideal by any means and the bus performed very well.
Small vehicles would have suffered much worst with that exact location and conditions.

To see a bus wrapped around a tree like that and sitting upright as deformed as it was on the wrecker is shocking. The speed and force of impact would have been dramatic much less to consider children were inside. It is very lucky that other children were not killed, the final rest of the bus in the picture above had the roof tilted downward and that probably prevented numerous children from being ejected from the bus and offered additional protection to a wider seating area of the bus.

Terrible accident and horrible losses for the families.

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"The Independence"
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Old 11-23-2016, 07:50 PM   #22
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I have a hard time believing the driver said that., He was proably going way to fast & by looking at the picture they showed his eyes looked like he was stoned, I hope I'm wrong about that 2nd point, we just have to wait for the blood results to know for sure, It's a sad situation for sure & can't began to imagine what the family's are going thru, God speed to the victims.
Well Just heard on CBS evening news he was clean, Guess I was wrong my apologizes to the man.
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Old 11-23-2016, 11:16 PM   #23
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Radio said the road he was on was not part of his route.
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Old 11-23-2016, 11:45 PM   #24
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Tonight on the news the parent of three boys on that bus said her oldest son said the driver yelled "are you all ready to DIE" before he turned the bus from the road. One of her sons past away. Drug and alcohol test came back clean. Apparently he had been reprimanded earlier for slamming on the brakes and making or trying to make the kids hit the seat in front of them.

What a POS! I'm not sure if this happened to my child he would ever live to see court. Find me a jury that would convict a mother or father for talking this guy out. The school bus driver is so important with small kids. His job is to protect them, its one of the few times your children are not with there parents or teachers. I had the same bus driver from elementary school to high school. She was a respected member of the town. This POS could never have gotten her job and he'd first have to have a hair cut to even try.

I hope there is a video camera. save some time and tax money if we can just see what happened. seat him in court in a electric chair.

I'm not normally mean but this is crazy these are kids, these people trusted whom ever to make sure this doesn't happen. I know vets that cant get hired because they don't have the right skill set. What skill's does this guy have? Tell me we would not have a safer system if returning vets were at the wheel protecting are children. God I'm pissed off. Sorry guys.
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Old 11-24-2016, 10:53 AM   #25
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several reports that the bus does have on-board cameras.
With bus drivers being such an important position, and they are lucky to get anything more than minimum wage.
Also, this bus and driver are a company, not a school district.
Profits are thus more important than the safety of our children.
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Old 11-24-2016, 11:18 AM   #26
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several reports that the bus does have on-board cameras.
With bus drivers being such an important position, and they are lucky to get anything more than minimum wage.
Also, this bus and driver are a company, not a school district.
Profits are thus more important than the safety of our children.
My school bus driver in middle school smoked, cursed at us, and made me walk a half mile home even though the bus route literally passed right by our house. But at least she never killed any of us.

Around here the bus yards ALL have permanent "hiring drivers" signs. Some sold old they're faded and crumbling. I think they pay nine or ten bucks an hour. Who in their right mind would jump through all the hoops to take that job for that pay?
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Old 11-24-2016, 12:38 PM   #27
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Who in their right mind would jump through all the hoops to take that job for that pay?

...felons, junkies, child molesters, crack heads...
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Old 11-24-2016, 02:42 PM   #28
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http://www.tennessean.com/story/news...3807192532#_=_


My heart goes out to the families of the passengers of the bus.

Sent from my SM-G530W using Tapatalk
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Old 11-24-2016, 05:18 PM   #29
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Don't know how other companies pay...we are paid by the route, or trip for other things like football games, field trips, etc.
Few drivers work full time - you come in for 2 hours in teh Am then back for 2 more in the PM.
A few drivers have steady kindergarten (we still do half day here - so there are some mid day trips) and vo-tech runs.

You need spotless background (criminal, children), CDL class B, usually air brakes, passenger and school bus endorsements.

Few local CDL jobs pay a lot - 10-15/hour around here. Class A can get paid more.

Local transit company (county owned) are paying driver 13.66/hour less union dues..not sure about benefits and many shifts are split - again, you have am and pm rush hours and nothing in the middle.

If I drive a normal am/pm route for an entire year it will pay about $12k. Works for me as I have a DJ and photography business so having nights and weekends free is good. And I can work 5 hours in the middle fo teh day (editing pics, marketing, etc). And I'm off when my kids are - like today, tomorrow, monday, christmas break, etc.

But yeah, you go to work twice a day and get $12k a year..what kind of folks do you think you get?
We have several mothers - the school year works out..a lot of retired people - it's not physically strenous.

Good - it's damned near gov't work - recession proof!
Bad- some people cannot deal with the kids. er..parents.

Good - our buses are garage kept, a company employee sees they are fueled and checked out, even started and warmed up for my arrival at 6:40 am!

Our main competitor (we're probably getting their contract at the end of the year) parks their buses outside, as most companies do. The bsues are faded, rusty, drivers have to fuel them themselves, clean them (inside), remove snow, start and warm them up (so get there earlier on cold day)..

one of their buses ran out of fuel on teh AM grade school run monday...and they've had illegal employees (one driver molested 2 kids on the bus 4 years ago, a guy was caught driving in sept without a license (lost it due to vehicular homicide in a commercial vehicle), another was caught eariler this month texting while driving the kids (they turned her in).

I like it - some do not. To some it's a job and nothing more..and that's not the best kind of worker for this type of work.

A larger contractor here treats their employees as 'robots' - not people. YOu get back what you put out.


Quote:
Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
My school bus driver in middle school smoked, cursed at us, and made me walk a half mile home even though the bus route literally passed right by our house. But at least she never killed any of us.

Around here the bus yards ALL have permanent "hiring drivers" signs. Some sold old they're faded and crumbling. I think they pay nine or ten bucks an hour. Who in their right mind would jump through all the hoops to take that job for that pay?
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Old 11-24-2016, 06:03 PM   #30
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...felons, junkies, child molesters, crack heads...
They pee test, do background checks, and all that jazz here.
Chattanooga is the pits, at least a lot of it. Used to love going there in the summer when I was a kid though.
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Old 11-24-2016, 08:13 PM   #31
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...felons, junkies, child molesters, crack heads...
Ahm, my wife is a bus driver, Spent 20 yrs as customer service for major airline then took a lay off, She's none of those, very interverted scared of her own shadow type but all she carries are special needs kids, I can tell you she's sad at the ended of every school year. All tho she doesn't need the job she does it because she enjoys it.
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Old 11-24-2016, 08:14 PM   #32
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Back in the day..the 70s, i smoked weed WITH the bus driver a few times coming back from vo-tech...my, how times have changed, huh?

parents get mad if the morning bus shows late - interrupts their workday.
teachers get mad if the buses can't take all the kids on-time at the end of the day - they have to stay and watch them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
They pee test, do background checks, and all that jazz here.
Chattanooga is the pits, at least a lot of it. Used to love going there in the summer when I was a kid though.
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Old 12-01-2016, 07:24 PM   #33
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Just heard of one.
This one is my hometown area of east Texas.
A school van and one dead.
Don't know all the details yet.
All of my direct family are firefighter/EMS and I still here the scanners and pagers from growing up but now in keeping up with things the whole family thing for 911 is through Facebook so everyone knows where each one was dispatched and responded to the route they are taking? Like a 911 operator didn't already have a tough enough job.
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Old 06-15-2018, 04:40 AM   #34
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Latest news- The driver is also a rapist. He likes 14 year old girls-
Driver in fatal Chattanooga bus crash arrested in Nashville for statutory rape - WKRN

Why was he out raping when he should have been in jail?

Quote:
Walker was sentenced to four years in prison in April for the November 2016 crash.

He was reportedly out on bond while his appeal is pending.
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