Time to ban School Buses!

Dead

New member
OK just heard on the news that "OVER 1000 kids are killed in School Bus accidents every year" Well I think it is time to ban them, save the children!

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Dead [Black Ops]
 
Do you know that school busses DO NOT have seat belts??? Just how much do we care about the children???

OH yeah, the driver probably has one.

More than 1000 huh?

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You have to be there when it's all over. Otherwise you can't say "I told you so."

Better days to be,

Ed
 
Dead, Where did you get your stats on the 1000 kids die each year in school bus accidents?

Ed Brunner, You're right the driver does have a seat belt.

Here's some info for the both of you: http://www.hsrc.unc.edu/pubinfo/child_busses.htm

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"Gun Control is Only to Protect Those in Power"

[This message has been edited by walangkatapat (edited September 04, 2000).]
 
I have heard the trailers for the evening news on this today, there is something about the brakes they are pushing on. I used to drive a school bus, last year, and can vouch they are pretty safe as is. One thing to consider before you change all the new buses, is the old buses will take about 5-10 years to get phased out. It really is not possable to just add seatbelts to school bus as is currently designed. I forget how many kids are carried each year for how many millions of miles, but I myself drove about 10,000 miles in a bus last year. Even if half those are unloaded miles, there are a lot of buses doing that every year. Buses are one of the safest forms of transportation due to driver training and bus inspections. Yes there are some bad buses and drivers out there, but pull up stats for normal public transportation.
 
Dead, CBS News!

That's a real credible and unbiased new source. :D

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"Gun Control is Only to Protect Those in Power"
 
I just wanted to put this up as a relational thing to guns & save the children.

If you believe what you hear on the news, the fact would be that MORE children are killed by, or while on School Buses than by guns! That would be from their own mouth (if the media & politicans didnt refer to "Children" as people under what was it 21, or 18??)

Save the Children indeed.... What bull!

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Dead [Black Ops]

[This message has been edited by Dead (edited September 05, 2000).]
 
Dead, yeah I know. The hypocrisy and double standards are unbelievable, but please, don't give the safety nazis any ideas. :)

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"Gun Control is Only to Protect Those in Power"
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ducky:
I used to drive a school bus, last year, and can vouch they are pretty safe as is. Buses are one of the safest forms of transportation due to driver training and bus inspections. Yes there are some bad buses and drivers out there, but pull up stats for normal public transportation.[/quote]

What state did/do you drive school bus in? I drove school buses here in MN for three years and was rather under impressed with both the training and inspections.

Buses do seem pretty safe though [if you can keep the violent kids under control], they are much bigger than anything else on the road except for semi's, not to mention they are painted a nice bright yellow/orange. IIRC the main threat to school buses is Trains.
 
I drove in ohio. I left working as a mechanic on buses and big rigs to drive simply because the boss didn't hold up his offer of a raise after a year. I had a friend who worked as a mechanic on a small fleet of buses, so I worked for the summer on the buses and then drove for the school year. I had to get my license the summer I worked as a mechanic for the school, didn't need a license to fix big rigs. I also got to do the required class for drivers. And while a bus has a lot of potential for problems, I never had any close calls. I did have some problems with the kids, but turning the bus around and going back to the school always had the other kids mad at the trouble makers. Peer pressure in action. :) I also took the bigger kids and had them in verbal control of the bus. They could watch the other kids, got assigned seats in the back as a bribe. They asked any kid being a problem to stop whatever they were doing and behave. If that did nothing, the kids in the back got the attention of someone in the front, and that kid asked me to check seat number whatever. At a safe point, I would check the seat, and if needed ask for the kid to behave. As long as I saw the misbehaving I could write the kid up. As weird as this system sounds, it worked for me. Other drivers said nothing like that would work, and blah blah blah. I didn't mind driving the buses, and would still be doing so except you either make 10 bucks an hour part time with decent benefits, or you make 12 or more an hour for no benefit, still part time. I drove for the district I live in and had the route that went by my house through the day. So my knowing the kids had a lot to do with it because they could tell the ones I did not know how I acted. I am nice to kids and generally don't care what they do unless damage is done to my property.

Also, being a mechanic I could do a great pre-trip. Besides looking at things, I knew driving what bad bearings or loose lock nuts sounded and felt like. I was able to pinpoint the problem rather than writing, steering feels loose, on the pre-trip. I had a good experience with the bus and kids, terrible with the school board and boss.

Sorry for the long response, but I feel it better explains why I feel good about the buses carrying kids. I don't have any kids or even a wife, so that helps keep the worry down. I saw on field trips lots of buses with problems and districts underfunded. And you still have stupid drivers. Getting a CDL is not easy, nor hard. Kind of like taking a good gun class where you also learn stances and procedures for shooting and get graded on performance both with written test and actual ability to do something. Like I already said, there is great potential for problems, but rules and regs need to be considered. For seatbelts there is a good one. Bus wrecks and rolls. All the kids are now hanging and only some undo belt. Those that are scared are about to be in a bus that will get hit by a truck. Is the driver resposible for getting the kids out? What about undoing belts that got stuck? Do you istall 2 or 3 point belts? Not having belts is also problematic, but thinking belts like what is in a car can easily be installed in a bus is foolish.
 
ducky: I had a good experience with the bus and kids, terrible with the school board and boss.

I hear you. Almost all the kids are fine, and many are great. I just got fed up with the school district that wouldn't take any action against the few dangerous & abusive kids. I drove for two different districts and noticed a big difference in the districts.

Actually I only had two kids, twin brothers, that were regular serious problems. They were at least minor drug dealers...one of them tried to get off my bus to go kill a teacher one afternoon. Took the wonderful school district over a month before they even talked to me about it. And another month before they removed him from regular public school. Even though they had a stack of documentation several inches thick already on this kid and his brother. BTW him and his brother were living with there dad because when they were in 6th grade they beat up their mom's boyfriend.

And my boss tried to tell me I needed to wear my seatbelt when those two model citizens were on the bus :-\ and sitting in the front seats. Oh and then there was the time the one brother starting punching the windows and etc and the principal of his school refused to take him off the bus, because she didn't want to have to stay with him till his dad was done with work [and she knew to the minute whent he dad would be home].

Sorry for the rant. I felt sorry for all the good kids that had to put up with stuff because the "adults" in charge weren't willing to do much.
 
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