Dumb bus driver.

Those on facebook have already seen this, so sorry for the double post.

I was turning left out of a parking lot today, to pull into a right-hand turn lane on a road here in my city. In the left hand turn lane, right next to where I was pulling up, was a school bus. I didn't think anything of it. I swung into the right hand lane...


And almost ran over a little girl. She was maybe 6 years old.

Apparently the bus driver decided that while he was sitting at the red light, it would be a good time to let the kid off. So he opened his door and out she went, right into traffic!

I called the police and the bus company immediately, but am still rather upset about it. Who let's a kid just get off a bus in the middle of a road? And at 4 in the afternoon!

What did the bus company/police say? I would call the school district as well!

So scary!

jourdysmom said:

What did the bus company/police say? I would call the school district as well!

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Police said they were going to check into it, and took a description of the driver and the child. The company thanked me for filing a report and said they'd discuss the matter with him when he returned from his route

Scary!!
Did you notice if there was the child parents or person that was supposed to meet them at the stop. Our school/bus company does not allow a child to get off the bus without someone to meet them before the age of 9...I believe. I cannot even imagine a child that age not being met at the bus stop or allowed to get off with no one to meet them.
DS is 6 years old and the one time that the bus driver was unable to see my car and I missed seeing the bus he was not let off the bus.

I've had some close calls where kids on bikes have got in just the right spot of my A pillar and were hidden and if I was not paying full attention they would have ended up under my car. Makes me sick to think about it.

Hopefully your calls will prevent an accident.

*faint*:thumbsdown:

BudgieStew said:

Scary!!
Did you notice if there was the child parents or person that was supposed to meet them at the stop. Our school/bus company does not allow a child to get off the bus without someone to meet them before the age of 9...I believe. I cannot even imagine a child that age not being met at the bus stop or allowed to get off with no one to meet them.
DS is 6 years old and the one time that the bus driver was unable to see my car and I missed seeing the bus he was not let off the bus.

I've had some close calls where kids on bikes have got in just the right spot of my A pillar and were hidden and if I was not paying full attention they would have ended up under my car. Makes me sick to think about it.

Hopefully your calls will prevent an accident.

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I didn't see anyone around, she walked in front of the bus, then down the street to an apartment building. I have no idea where her actual bus stop even is. The whole situation was just wrong.

The bus driver should be waiting until the kids cross the street to bring down the stop sign! Gah. That drives me insane.

BudgieStew said:

Our school/bus company does not allow a child to get off the bus without someone to meet them before the age of 9...I believe. I cannot even imagine a child that age not being met at the bus stop or allowed to get off with no one to meet them.

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A & C are dropped off in front of the house (on our side of the street), and the bus driver has to see me before they drop him off, but I don't have to actually go outside (and when it's freezing cold outside I do not go outside). Having said that, here, grade school aged kids (at least in kindergarten) can walk home with permission, and you can sign a release with the bus company to have them walk home from the bus stop, or be dropped off at your door without seeing an adult. We have a lot of young kids walking home here, and honestly they are more respectful of drivers and more likely to stick with sidewalks/walk on the side of the road than the teens.

Oh my gosh.I am so glad you saw her. He should be fired.. That is so scary.

CelticLabyrinth said:

The bus driver should be waiting until the kids cross the street to bring down the stop sign! Gah. That drives me insane.



A & C are dropped off in front of the house (on our side of the street), and the bus driver has to see me before they drop him off, but I don't have to actually go outside (and when it's freezing cold outside I do not go outside). Having said that, here, grade school aged kids (at least in kindergarten) can walk home with permission, and you can sign a release with the bus company to have them walk home from the bus stop, or be dropped off at your door without seeing an adult. We have a lot of young kids walking home here, and honestly they are more respectful of drivers and more likely to stick with sidewalks/walk on the side of the road than the teens.

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I would kill to have a bus stop in front of my house. I have to drive to the end of the block(and waste 30 minutes of my life everyday) and in the case of the entire Fall this year several blocks away while the streets were closed for construction.
The school/bus company is very firm on children under a certain age being allowed to get off the bus without an adult to meet them. So I guess I assumed most places in N.A would be the same. DS will be 7 in March and I cannot fathom him walking unattended from the bus stop to home. He would be hit by a car within a week. And it would not be his fault. For some odd reason our tiny street seems to be a favorite of people testing out horsepower in their car.

that's just horrible! What happened to the flashing lights... the signs... and why the HECK wasn't he in the RIGHT lane when doing this?

that's the big thing for me... if he'd been in the lane right next to the curb, the kid would have been just fine.

(if the bus was going in the opposite direction, fine, then where was the big yellow bar to prevent vehicles going by without damaging it?

Kat_Momof3 said:

(if the bus was going in the opposite direction, fine, then where was the big yellow bar to prevent vehicles going by without damaging it?

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The yellow bar (here, at least) is to prevent the children from running out in front of the bus (in the blind spot). The red stop sign, though, should be up to tell drivers to stop.

He didn't have anything out... no stop sign, no blinking lights, no yellow bar. Nothing.

The left turn lane is what puzzles me. . .

In the district I work in (I think you know which one), we have 3-5 year olds ending school anywhere between oh, 2 and 4:30, I think. We have some 3-5 year olds who do not get on their school bus until 4:30 or something ridiculous like that. I know some of our littles weren't getting home until close to 6 pm some days when their bus ran late.

For many years, our district allowed 4 year olds to be dropped off at a corner stop without an adult present This changed suddenly during the school year and now kids in our PreK programs MUST be met by an adult.:thumbsup:

If its a curb-to-curb transport (meaning they are picking up/dropping a child off at an address rather than a bus stop), then they do not run the 8-way flashers and put out the stop arm. I think they just have to put on their hazards (4-way, I think its called) and stop. But, they stop AT the curb, not in the middle of the road!

Good for you for reporting it. I've gone so far as to follow a school bus that I witnessed doing something wrong to get the bus number. In the Twin Cities Metro area, a lot of the busses are contract routes, so if you can find out the route number and the school district, it can be a good idea to call both the bus company (e.g. First Student, Monarch, Comfort Bus) AND the school district. The district can come down hard on the contractors if they are not following the laws or rules.

Tina