School Bus Driver Arrested For Driving Through Floodwaters With Student On Board
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I personally rode a school bus that went from a two lane road to a single lane bridge and back to a two lane road both to school and back home from 4th through 12th grade. It also dropped a few inches upon getting on the bridge, and rose a few inches upon getting off the bridge. It had short guard rails and I don't understand this bridge - whether it is county maintained or not - not having guard rails. It is obvious from the google map posted that the roadway in question is a county maintained roadway.
The driver was not charged with not being on an approved route. He is charged with ignoring a barricade - even though it is a completely submerged in the center and almost completely submerged on the ends barricade.
There are county maintained roads in lots of rural places - but I will say Kentucky as one many people can relate to - that are single lane and you drive on or through a creek for a small or large part of your journey to where you are going. That's right - the stream bed is actually part of the road - the county maintained road. The county and school district would be remiss in their obligation to provide a compulsory public education if they did not go into that streambed to get to the 3 or 4 houses on that single lane county maintained partial riverbed road and collect the kids and take them to school. Can you think of a single state that doesn't provide a compulsory public education???
Did you see the condition of that bus? You have a ratty school bus, a single lane road, no guard rails on the bridge a submersed barricade, and you expect to find a driver with a radio or cell phone, eh?
He was charged with failing to obey a warning sign (i.e. the Road Closed sign) and endangering a child. I understand one lane bridges. Where I'm living, we have lots of one lane bridges on the back roads, and school busses drive over them. But they are nothing like this bridge. They all have side walls or guard rails. I guess we have better infrastructure here in the west.
As for school district obligations, most states do not require that bus service be provided on poorly maintained roads or where there is not enough room to turn a school bus around. Students can be required to walk a reasonable distance to a bus stop. These days most school bus service is highway based with students walking to the highway. So there is no obligation for school districts to provide bus service on the type of roads you mentioned.
Was the driver charged with not being on a 3 lane roadway? No, he wasn't. He is accused of ignoring the submerged barricade.
If it is not poor or unkempt, then the county is negligent in maintaining their equipment. The bus is ratty, and I have been in many poor communities who maintained their equipment much better than that.
He was charged with failing to obey a warning sign (i.e. the Road Closed sign) and endangering a child.
I don't mean to sound argumentative, because I wasn't there so I don't know for sure. But I noticed that, for the most part, the hood of the bus stayed above the water. However, there were a couple of times when it dipped under, once so far down that the mirrors were almost obscured. To me, it looks as though those were the times when the bus was floating; or, more accurately, starting to sink. But the times when the hood was above water seems to suggest, to me at least, that the vehicle had found bottom. It was still being carried along by the force of the current, but it wasn't submerging because its wheels were scraping the bottom.
Notice also that when the bus finally came to rest, the hood remained above water at about the same height at which it was for much of the video. This too suggests that it had found bottom, only at that point it had gotten stuck on something (a downed tree, perhaps?) that kept it from being swept further downstream.
No problem. That was my point. The hood can't drop below the water, unless the water is at least five or six feet deep. That is crazy deep for any vehicle to drive into.
If that's the only access to the students that's the road used. I can think of as bad, or worse, bus routes in the part of PA where I grew up. Even down here in SOMD there are roads like that, especially in Charles and St. Mary's Counties.
Worse than driving over a narrow one lane bridge with no guard rails?
It's not the clearest video, but I don't see any houses or driveways just before the creek. Just the one driveway shortly after turning onto the road. I don't see any reason that submerged barrier shouldn't have been a few hundred feet further back, where it wouldn't have been affected by the rising water. The creek doesn't look like it flooded that far up the roadway, but the barrier seems to be only a few car lengths from the end of where the bridge probably begins, if that. IMO it probably should have been back near whatever the big sign is on the left at the 45 second mark.
There was a road closed sign at the intersection. He was charged with disobeying that sign.
There was a road closed sign at the intersection. He was charged with disobeying that sign.
Again I'm not talking about the road closed sign (and who knows, maybe it was just closed to through traffic? unknown), or what he was charged with. I'm just saying that if that submerged barrier was meant to be some sort of physical barrier to the bridge the placement was seriously lacking.
No that's not true. The barricade should have been visible, especially if you are going to accuse someone of ignoring it. The barricade could have been placed right after the driveway. It would have been visible, and a clear case of ignoring a barricade could be made.
Honestly, in the interest of public safely, the state has a right to barricade a driveway if need be. All states have something called 'imminent domain' which means they can do what they want. I have seen barricades placed to block traffic completely across roadways, and residents who have a better idea move them.
The Road Closed sign was clearly visible at the intersection. As to your second point, that is debatable. Residents and businesses generally have right of access. That's why these signs are usually used.
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