Apparently I can’t post hyperlinks, so I’ll post the story:
BRAINTREE, Mass. – Security cameras were rolling when a local bus driver made a very dangerous decision.
The bus driver was cited when she failed to stop at a railroad crossing at Commercial and Front Streets in Braintree on the way to East Middle School.
Alarms were sounding, lights were flashing and the crossing gate was coming down when the bus filled with children entered the intersection. The video shows the crossing gate striking the bus as it dropped down to block the road.
The name of the bus driver is being withheld because she has not been charged with a criminal offense.
There were no injuries, but officials said there could have been.
Why is this not a criminal offense? It should be IMO.
The drive of that school bus should be required to memorize verbatim this NTSB accident report, which has the following paragraph leading off its executive summary:
On March 28, 2000, about 6:40 a.m. (sunrise was at 6:33 a.m.), a CSX Transportation, Inc., freight train traveling 51 mph struck the passenger side of a Murray County, Georgia, School District school bus at a railroad/highway grade crossing near Conasauga, Tennessee. The accident occurred as the school bus was crossing the tracks at a speed of approximately 15 mph. During the accident sequence, the driver and three children were ejected. Two ejected passengers received serious injuries and one was fatally injured. The driver, who had been wearing a lap/shoulder belt that broke during the crash sequence, received minor injuries. Of the four passengers who remained inside the bus, two were fatally injured, one sustained serious injuries, and one, who was restrained by a lap belt, received minor injuries. The two train crewmembers were not injured.
The accident in the report had a depressingly similar scenario. BTW, that bus driver never drove a bus again.
There was video on the local news last evening of the gate coming down on the buses roof, fortunatly at that point the driver realized his or her mistake and stopped. Apparently a school crossing guard is also on the hot seat for waving the bus forward…
Requirements to qualify to drive a school bus: Breathing
You’d think that an occupation that has as it’s primary funtion transporting children to and from school would have a bit more stringent qualifications and more thorough training.
Plus they generally pay just above minimum wage, require working a split-shift as well as tolerating the screaming and yelling of 30+ kids.
Not exactly the type of working environment that attracts the cream-of-the-crop.
Local news carried the video. I could see that the bus had stopped, but I doubt that it stopped short of fouling the tracks. (Something miraculous must have happened, though, since there was no mention of a collision).
The story with the video (you didn’t quote this part, Doug) said that the driver was suspended by the school system pending further charges. Why would the driver take the word (or signal) of a crossing guard that motioned her out into a crossing like that? The fact that this guard motioned her out of the intersecting street doesn’t suggest that she shouldn’t have stopped, opened the door, and looked both ways before attempting to cross. It was obvious from the video report seen above (sorry; I have no sound) that she didn’t, so her story that the gate came down without warning doesn’t hold too much water.
The fact that the bus route has been changed is a pretty good indication that they realized that this was a bad spot from the get-go. Whether it was a street or a driveway that the bus was turning out of, it should have been protected by a traffic signal (instead of a crossing guard), and there should have been enough room for the bus to straighten out on the street crossing the tracks. Evidently getting out onto the street–rather than grade-crossing protocol–was foremost in the mind of this driver this time.