Not only do they speed with Your Children too often,,, but they run red lights and RxR / railroad tracks WITHOUT STOPPING.
Parents assume the transport of their children is of a high importance to their public school district. Back when i was driving a 99 passenger school bus WITHOUT A CHAPERONE and without any seat belts for any of the kids, and a EMR handicap van with the disabled kids triple strapped in, it was an eye opener job! Have you ever attended a school board meeting? What a farce!
I worked in San Diego and for a subcontractor for a school district. So the school district did not have to pay us good wages and benefits and after taking a huge skim of profits, neither did the subcontractor. Low wages, unpaid split shift jobs attract ,,,who? Women and low skill men. I was driving the best charter bus company new vehicles at night and on weekends,,, and working driving school kids on workdays. Back then San Diego had the smoothest and most uncrowded freeways in Ca. and was a cheap great place to live for 20?s and 30?s young adults !!
My first day with 99 seats scared the heck out of me as to who would protect the kid/s in the back of the bus? With the small van , i personally strapped and seat belted in every child and had a great group of kids who were mostly very well behaved and probably heavily medicated. But i often saw my fellow subcontractor drivers run railroad tracks without stopping first,,, and speeding. Often !!
The CHP class for the license was strict but not that hard. And we seldom saw a manager from the subcontractor, tho i bet he was secretly following us around ,maybe, to check on us. Maybe not.
That is why i think every parent who has his kid bused should secretly follow that bus at least once a school year. That is not too much to ask of parents. And why? Because you probably have a very low wage, no benefits, stressed out by kids yelling, person driving your very valuable kid !
And school buses , tho bright in color, are not 'bright' in design compared to adult buses/ coaches. I would much rather have my kid as a passenger in a use 1980s MCI or used VanHool than any new school bus , without A/C and without strong comfy seats AND SEAT BELTS. Plus , a used coach might be cheaper and have an emergency toilet in back, a good thing to have with a bunch of kids,,, and no other adult. Yellow school buses have inferior suspensions and inferior brakes to a new ,say, VanHool coach of 40 or 45ft. Yes, school buses are expensive , but compare a crash in a typical school bus vs a used coach. My guess is there is better survive-ability in the new or used coach,especially with seat belts that you can now order for coaches. You put your kid in any vehicle or yellow school bus WITHOUT ANY SEAT BELTS !? Are you crazy !?
That is something that always troubled me, why no one volunteered or took low pay to be the second adult on every school bus,,, besides the driver. As a parent, you certainly don't expect a low paid or even a high paid school district driver to drive and also make sure you kid does not get beaten up by the always present resident bully,,, do you!?
That is such a huge risk, as a bunch of screaming and yelling and opening emergency exit windows on narrow busy streets can unnerve most professional drivers. And if you don't think this misbehavior happens regularly, just call Stanford and ask how misbehaving the fraternities and sororities there are when they charter buses to go to the bar on the coast to act like hooligans, as they open the buses emergency exit windows on hwy 92 and risk an oncoming truck hitting the window and spraying broken glass at people inside the bus !! With elementary and middle school students the risks are much greater, yet there is no 'hazard pay' in school bus driving and you can make much more money getting tips and driving tour buses or city double decker tour buses. Or most truck jobs with full benefits. So don't think for a second these days with most school districts unwilling to pay for the best drivers as direct employees and choosing subcontractors of whatever repute instead that automatically your kids are safe.
Yes, i use to call the CHP and tell them that i saw a school bus driver run a red light or run a set of railroad tracks. But back in the 70s and even today in SoCal they are too busy to seem to care. Only up here in NorCal do i have the CHP trained to politely take my calls on drunk drivers, speeders and racers, bloody accidents, debris everywhere damaging many passing cars behind 2 to multi-car collisions, and people who die or fall asleep at the wheel and just drive off into the bushes,,,
The biggest charter bus company in SF, the now bankrupt 'CoachAmerica', use to send unlicensed drivers to do school district jobs requiring a school bus drivers license/SPAB. I got out of one such run by talking privately with the school principal about her legal liability.
Parents are too trusting.
Parents should verify,,, not just get in line.
