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Strange no one has mentioned that not only was he speeding , he was speeding in an area with dangerous curves which was not on the bus route. One of the earlier newscast had a Mother saying her child said the bus driver had asked if they were ready to die. I have not heard that since.
I think those two issues should have disqualified him from transporting children on a vehicle day after day. I don't think the age is the issue. Twenty four years old is plenty old enough to be anything really. But once you've proven you are incapable of handling such responsibility - collisions, suspended license, parental complaints - you should lose your professional certification.
Maybe it just isn't that realistic. I wouldn't doubt there are bus drivers in every school district in the country who drive just as if not more dangerously than him.
Although, for whatever reason, it has evaded extensive attention at this site, many of us are aware that a school bus accident in Chattanooga, TN has killed six young children, with the possibility of losing more. We know that the driver presents a picture that would scare the daylights out of the typical suburban Soccer Mom, and that he has a very questionable previous driving record.
But it also appears that, as with the Amtrak accident in Philadelphia, now a year and a half ago, the causes immediately speculated upon in the "lynch mob" atmosphere that always accompanies such events (drugs, alcohol, cell phone use and texting) were not a factor. The resolution of these issues now rests with the law and the courts --- and it's a not-very-flattering comment on our society that the ambulance-chasing is also well under way.
But when blame is eventually assigned in this case, I feel that a number of factors attributable to the daily pressures of our de-industrialized society in "economic free fall" should also undergo a close scrutiny.
We've learned, for example that Johnthony Walker was holding down two jobs -- the school bus route and an associate's position in an Amazon warehouse. I can speak from personal experience that the former always involves a difficult schedule, and the latter was probably a seasonal entry-level opportunity, with the promise of better-paying permanent employment at a later date -- if the applicant successfully copes with the immediate pressure. So a lot of people --most of them young and not from well-heeled households -- try to burn the candle at both ends.
Nor am I going to try to blame Amazon exclusively; demand for merchandise ebbs and flows with increasing intensity as the cycles of economic activity become more pronounced. That causes mangers and executives at all levels of our society to focus more intensively on the short term. More and more of our "national nest egg" is represented by the stock equity of highly-visible corporations and, in turn, becomes part of the endowment of philanthropies, institutions, insurance companies and pension funds. So the Leftist myth that it all goes into a vault under the control of a handful of "super-rich CEO's" also needs a deeper evaluation.
The overall point being, that just as in the early years of the Twentieth Century, our nation's economy is running at full-tilt, with a lot of safety valves tied down. It's no longer anywhere as visible, or at as great a cost as that week in the winter of 1907 when over 500 men died mining coal alone, and we don't see the accidents in a number of sectors that regularly saw fatalities in the double figures, as was still the case when I was growing up in the 1960's -- but the threat is there.
We need to maintain our vigilance on safety in all aspects of daily life, because the demands of a public led to expect too much neither show signs of letting up, nor offer a direct way to mitigate them. There are simply not enough people, with enough time, nor enough competence, to address all our concerns, and occasionally, some individual falls through the cracks, with bitter consequences.
Nice assumption.
I had an ER doctor(black with dreadlocks) who looked just like this take very good care of my late father, whom I believe saved his life that night, and gave him a few more years. It never occurred to me to question his ability based on his look, until he gave me a reason(as in screwing up) to question it, and he did not.
What I don't like about this young man was the only quote I heard from him was to his mother, and how he hoped it wasn't his fault. No mention of the children who died.
I understand how he didn't want it to be his fault, although it looks like he was speeding. But not one word about those kids or their families.
How horrific this is, and this time of year just makes it all the more harsh.
It never occurred to me to question his ability based on his look, until he gave me a reason(as in screwing up) to question it, and he did not.
Yeah but this guy did screw up big time and there are dead children to prove it. If he had not been hired because he looks freakish then maybe those children would still be alive.
Really, I put a lot of responsibility on the school...or bus company or who ever didn't fire him for his driving record.
I have seen some terribly driven busses and I have also seen where there was a super high turn over of drivers (like them just not showing up for work so the busses are super late when they finally find someone to come drive the bus). Something is wrong with the bus system in some areas and that needs to be fixed.
Of course this man is responsible for his speeding and being off route. But there are some major break downs in the system before he was even given the keys that day.
Not the way the guy looks. The picture painted in the press of a very young man juggling a heavy workload who may have been affected by too many demands on his time. A young man with a driving record that doesn't paint him as conscientious about his driving habits. A young man who was recklessly speeding with a bus full of youngsters. And IF the reports of some of the students are believed a young man who MAY have sometimes been drinking while driving the bus. THAT is the picture being presented and it is scary that someone like that was given a job as a bus driver.
One would think that the bus company would have policies in place to suspend drivers who demonstrate irresponsible driving, or to weed them out in the hiring process.
As a parent I would certainly not be comfortable KNOWING such a person was driving my children on a bus, neither would most concerned parents (aka 'soccer moms')
For openers, I'd like to thank all the respondents for refraining from the one-line "drive-by" responses which seem far too common over at Yahoo and other sites. There is, unfortunately, a small, but still substantial minority among us who get a thrill from participating in what amounts to a lynch mob; no one hates the loser on the bottom-most rung of society more than the loser who is only one notch higher up -- and both of them start to cackle whenever anyone above them is dragged down into the cesspool; the steeper the fall from grace, the better.
And it needs to be recognized by everyone in this thread that operating a school bus is usually an unwanted job; the hours involve an early start (pushed further ahead in many districts because parents and teachers want an early start, but students have no say in this) and a break in the middle of the day which makes outside employment either impossible, or sleep patterns very stressful. Walker should have known better than to try to juggle two jobs, but his upbringing in what appears to be a single-parent female-headed household may have left some gaps which might have been better-filled by the presence of a stable father figure.
Too many of the "drive-by" critics have had little or no experience in dealing with an occupational field such as transportation, where working hours different from the customary 9-to-5 are the rule, or where one small mistake can undo a lot of correct decisions.
I've worked "front-line" positions in the operating departments of both highway and rail carriers -- an uncommon combination. The first two years were at the "trouble desk" (answering the outside phone lines) for a major trucking line. One fall morning at around 6 AM, I took a call from a driver -- a veteran only a couple of years from retirement -- who had the misfortune to encounter a fog bank within a short distance, and to rear-end a stopped compact car, killing its two teenaged occupants. It's that easy for someone's life to self-destruct.
And a final comment on the idea of seat belts as a cure-all:
What of the Chattanooga accident had involved fire? -- with panicked youngsters as young as age five belted into their seats?
The point I seek to make here is that there is no absolute security on this side of the cemetery. Progress is made, but at a slow pace, and with some occasional backtracking -- sometimes with a human toll. And too often, those appearing to lead the charge have their own agenda, or are looking for a scapegoat.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 11-24-2016 at 04:17 PM..
For openers, I'd like to thank all the respondents for refraining from the one-line "drive-by" responses which seem far too common over at Yahoo and other sites. There is, unfortunately, a small, but still substantial minority among us who get a thrill from participating in what amounts to a lynch mob; no one hates the loser on the bottom-most rung of society more than the loser who is only one notch higher up -- and both of them start to cackle whenever anyone above them is dragged down into the cesspool; the steeper the fall from grace, the better.
And it needs to be recognized by everyone in this thread that operating a school bus is usually an unwanted job; the hours involve an early start (pushed further ahead in many districts because parents and teachers want an early start, but students have no say in this) and a break in the middle of the day which makes outside employment either impossible, or sleep patterns very stressful. Walker should have known better than to try to juggle two jobs, but his upbringing in what appears to be a single-parent female-headed household may have left some gaps which might have been better-filled by the presence of a stable father figure.
Too many of the "drive-by" critics have had little or no experience in dealing with an occupational field such as transportation, where working hours different from the customary 9-to-5 are the rule, or where one small mistake can undo a lot of correct decisions.
I've worked "front-line" positions in the operating departments of both highway and rail carriers -- an uncommon combination. The first two years were at the "trouble desk" (answering the outside phone lines) for a major trucking line. One fall morning at around 6 AM, I took a call from a driver -- a veteran only a couple of years from retirement -- who had the misfortune to encounter a fog bank within a short distance, and to rear-end a stopped compact car, killing its two teenaged occupants. It's that easy for someone's life to self-destruct.
And a final comment on the idea of seat belts as a cure-all:
What of the Chattanooga accident had involved fire? -- with panicked youngsters as young as age five belted into their seats?
The point I seek to make here is that there is no absolute security on this side of the cemetery. Progress is made, but at a slow pace, and with some occasional backtracking -- sometimes with a human toll. And too often, those appearing to lead the charge have their own agenda, or are looking for a scapegoat.
What I find sad is "drive by" assumptions. God bless.
I'd also like to hear the OP explain just what about Walker's image is so terrifying.
Magritte, the latest I've heard is that his driving record included a minor vehicle collision and several months of having a suspended license due to lack of insurance. I wouldn't call that unusual.
For some reason people want there to have been something terribly wrong with this guy, but all the info we have thus far just says he was driving irresponsibly, as many people his age do.
Maybe it's time to raise the age limit required to be a bus driver. Furthermore, if the state of Tennessee required seatbelts on its buses, there may not have been any lives lost.
Just want to comment on the bolded. Years ago, when I was in school in SC, many/most bus drivers were actually high school kids for whom that was their part time job. The general consensus at the time was there they were actually safer than the towns that used adult bus drivers. I think the grounds being that they were still young enough to be scared and so drove more slowly and carefully. The adult drivers tended to push the edge more.
In contrast, while living in Colorado, I filled several complaints with the school system about their adult bus drivers. I didn't have kids in school at the time, but was seriously concerned about the reckless driving shown. Almost as if the drivers believed the big yellow bus was a magic deflector shield that prevented accidents.
His picture didn't make me think he's incapable of driving a bus. But his age is a clear sign of not having enough experience for driving a school bus. There is a reason your insurance drops after a certain age & that's because statistically people within a certain age range are more likely to get into accidents. Spare me the speech on how some of you were great drivers at that age. Does not mean anything except you were a good driver. Even if you were a good driver, driving a school bus is no where near the same as driving a regular car.
The amount of experience difference in somebody who is 34 years old vs 24 years old is tremendous. The more you've driven the more likely hood that you've dealt with more bad drivers, your defensive driver skills get better, & you get more used to bad road conditions.
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One of the earlier newscast had a Mother saying her child said the bus driver had asked if they were ready to die. I have not heard that since.
Not the way the guy looks. The picture painted in the press of a very young man juggling a heavy workload who may have been affected by too many demands on his time. A young man with a driving record that doesn't paint him as conscientious about his driving habits. A young man who was recklessly speeding with a bus full of youngsters. And IF the reports of some of the students are believed a young man who MAY have sometimes been drinking while driving the bus. THAT is the picture being presented and it is scary that someone like that was given a job as a bus driver.
