This past week, in five different states, five children were killed, and six children as well as two adults were seriously injured due to people who passed stopped school buses. When I say 'stopped' school buses I don't mean buses that were sitting at stop lights or pulled off the side of the road. By 'stopped' I mean school buses that were stopped at bus stops loading or unloading children. The buses all had the red 8-way lights flashing on the front and back and all had red stop signs extended off the side of the bus, each stop sign had flashing red lights on it.
The people who hit these children and adults passed those school buses when the law specifically states that all vehicles must STOP when they see a school bus stopped to load or unload children. Why those people ignored the law will never be truly known. Why others are saying these were 'unfortunate accidents' is beyond me. These were not accidents, these fatalities and injuries happened because someone made a choice; a bad choice.
An accident is defined in the dictionary as:
1. an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.
2. an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.
Did any of the offenders in these cases set out those mornings intending to pass a stopped school bus and either kill or injure a child? Were any of these incidents deliberate? Doubtful, but that doesn't mean these were accidents. Why? Because every one of these drivers made a choice to ignore the law or the rules of the road in one form or another.
Driving is not a right, it's a privilege. When you get your driver license you make an unspoken promise with every driver and every pedestrian that you will drive cautiously, follow the rules of the road, and stay within the boundaries of the law. Every time you get into your vehicle you agree all over again to abide by that promise. Every. Single. Time.
When you get into your vehicle after you've been drinking, or when you think you're late and need to speed to get to work on time, or when you drive distractedly because you've had a personal dilemma, or when you feel the need to initiate or respond to a text, or when you pass a stopped school bus because you don't feel you need to wait, you've made a choice to ignore the promise you made when you got your driver license.
I don't care what your reasons are, there is NO EXCUSE for ANYONE to pass a stopped school bus. Young lives are being lost because someone chooses to blatantly ignore the law and do what they feel like doing rather than taking into consideration the lives that are at stake. It's selfish, inconsiderate, rude, disrespectful AND DANGEROUS! Whatever your reason is for not stopping, it's not good enough. It will never be good enough! Make sure you understand that. Your choice is not an accident.
Until next time...peace to all.
This afternoon something very strange happened. It's absolutely true; no joke.
I was driving my school bus, taking my elementary school kids home at the end of the day. On Thursdays our schools let out a little bit early so on the last leg of my run I encounter an elementary school in a different district that dismisses right about the time I get into the area to drop off my kids. Lots of cars parked alongside the roadway with parents waiting to pick up their kids; lots of other kids walking home from that school. Today was no different.
I turned the corner into the community where I drop off two large groups. I was going slowly to avoid cars and kids; didn't want anyone to get hurt. There were two cars parked just at the beginning of the block where I entered and a small public transportation bus coming in my direction from the other end of the street. The cars remained where they were and the bus pulled over to the side to allow me to pass. I was moving as slowly as possible, looking in every direction to make sure no kids were running near my bus.
As I got halfway down the block I noticed a boy, probably about nine years old, standing on the opposite side of the street from me. He was smiling and looking like he'd had a pleasant day. Cute kid. He was about even with my driver side window and we looked directly at each other as he stepped off the curb to cross the street. I slowed to the point that I was barely moving. I didn't even have my foot on the gas; it was on the brake instead...just in case. I wasn't sure what he was going to do so I just kept edging forward as slowly as I could go. He walked to the middle of the street and stopped.
I came to a complete stop and waited since I wasn't sure if he was going to wait or keep walking. He remained stationary so I figured he was letting me pass. I made sure all was clear in front of me and I began to cautiously edge forward again. He started walking very slowly toward my bus. I was watching him in my side view mirror the entire time to make sure I didn't hit him, or that he didn't fall under my bus. The side view mirrors on both sides of my bus are adjusted so that I can see down the entire length of the bus and well beyond, up to about 400 feet. They allow me to see traffic and pedestrians both.
Anyway, the little boy kept walking and just as I passed him he walked past the rear corner of the bus on my driver side. I immediately looked in my overhead student mirror so I could see out the rear emergency door to make sure the boy made it to the curb okay. I didn't see him. I looked out the side view mirrors on the passenger side. I didn't see him. I checked the side views on my driver side again. I didn't see him. I checked all three again but I did not see the boy anywhere. Whaaat? He was just there.
I looked up into my overhead mirror again and said, sort of out loud, but mostly to myself, "Where'd he go?" It was like the kid just disappeared. What the heck? At that exact moment my monitor, K, who was standing at the back of the bus talking to our elementary kids, looked at me through the mirror and asked, "Did you see that?"
Hmm...
"Did I see what?"
"That kid that just crossed the street?"
"Yes, I saw him. Where'd he go?"
"He disappeared."
"I know he disappeared but where'd he go?"
"He just...disappeared."
No, people don't just disappear, do they? Our brains had to have been malfunctioning.
There had been no cars coming toward me at all so nobody could have pulled over to pick up the boy. There was only one car coming from behind me but she didn't even stop. When she saw that I was pulled over she just passed me and kept going. There's no way she could've done that if the boy had been there because she would've hit him. But I watched her just drive up the street and go by me, not even a brake check on her part.
Now I was thinking that maybe the kid ducked down behind the bus and was going to skitch without me seeing him. I was already stopped at this point so I put the bus in neutral, engaged the emergency brake and turned on my hazard lights. K got off the bus, walked all the way around and even looked under the bus. No kid...anywhere. K got back on and we just stared at each other for a minute or so, looked around again to be sure all was clear, and I continued on my route.
After all my kids had been delivered home safely, K and I headed back to the bus garage when he brought up the little boy again. We discussed it all the way back to base. We even compared notes to make sure we saw the same kid. Our clothing descriptions matched, as did the fact that the kid had dark, curly hair. We didn't imagine it. Or did we? What's even more odd is that none of the kids on our bus saw the little boy. When K and I were talking about it right after it happened, not one kid mentioned anything about having seen the boy, and these kids are really big on interjecting their opinions when they feel the need. Not one peep out of any of them.
I told the story to my own kids at dinner tonight and Zach suggested that both K and I were stressed and that our minds saw the same thing. Not possible. That'd be like a mass-hallucination, and we weren't stressed. On the way back to the bus garage K suggested that maybe we weren't actually on the bus but were somewhere getting drunk and none of it had really happened. Funny, but obviously not possible, either. We even checked under the bus again, after I parked it, thinking maybe the kid got underneath and was hanging on for a daredevil ride. Of course he wasn't there. DUH!
We have absolutely no idea what happened to the boy but we are both 100% sure that we saw him and that he disappeared as soon as he passed the back corner of the bus. K is convinced he was a ghost; I'm inclined to believe him at this point. It's so odd! Maybe we'll never know where the boy went. Maybe it didn't really happen at all. But we know it did, we both saw it happen. So where'd the boy go? Your guess is as good as mine.
Until next time...peace to all.
