School Bus hit a street light pole and a stop sigm - Who to call (house)

[SaratL]

This morning a St. Stephen St. Agnes bus, hit a stop sign and a Street Light pole in front of my house, while backing up and the driver drove away in a hurry (I got the number though!). I checked and both the items are loose now and definately need repair. Who should I call?
This bus does this precarious backing up in front of my house every day at around 3:30 pm and I feel that I should tell the school of this incident.

[Yankeesfan]

Call the school and the police.

[bungalowmo]

Yes...definitely school and police. Wouldn't hurt to take a photo of the daily ritual just to prove it was the bus. I'd guess his bumper has some scarring as well.

[SaratL]

Thanks. FFX Police referred me to VDOT who is going to come and fix the poles. Also let the school know and have given the videocamera to my son to tape this daily ritual of making a close turn.

[Yankeesfan]

When some neighbors of mine wanted to have a FCPS bus route changed within their neighborhood, we were told that bus routes are designed specifically to prevent buses from needing to back up because that's not considered safe.

[car54]

Originally Posted by Yankeesfan

When some neighbors of mine wanted to have a FCPS bus route changed within their neighborhood, we were told that bus routes are designed specifically to prevent buses from needing to back up because that's not considered safe.

That's true to a point....but sometimes it's not possible....there's too many dead-end streets. I have 2 turnarounds (back-ups) on my middle school run, and three on my high school run.

FCPS has hundreds of backing accidents every year....because it's very difficult to back those buses up, particularly the rear-engine units. On those, all you have is the side mirrors (the back window is way too high off the ground to be of any use), which distort things. The rear of the bus is almost 40 feet behind the driver and it's very hard to judge exactly where the back of the bus is in relation to objects back there. I've been backing up in tight places and thought I was about to hit something....walked to the back to look (something you can't do if students are aboard), and I had 20 feet more I could back up.

We are supposed to have a kid "spot" for us....but 99% of them are either too dumb to do it, or they will deliberately let you back into something. (the wiseguys naturally gravitate to the back of the bus, while the good kids prefer to sit up front)

To the OP: By all means, call the school and report the driver. But don't get your hopes up for a dismissal....it is way, way too difficult to recruit school bus drivers, especially the private schools (probably a teacher or custodian was driving). So believe me, they ain't firing anybody over backing into a sign!

Besides the obvious reason (low pay), driver recruitment is very difficult because there are two requirement to become a school bus driver....

a) clean driving record
b) pass a drug test.

Right there, you've eliminated 90% of the applicants!

[dkf747]

To get the CDL you have to be able to back up to a cone as close as possible without touching it. Is that still a requirement? They should be able to back up without hitting things. (Yes, I used to drive school/church buses all of the time).

[SaratL]

Originally Posted by car54

To the OP: By all means, call the school and report the driver. But don't get your hopes up for a dismissal....

Thaks. My intention is not to get any dismissal but to ensure that the driver drives carefully and if has to back up in front of my house, does that carefully.