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Can you give even one example -- ever in the history of the county -- of a Wake County child's life that was ended by an accident involving a school bus in a few inches of snow?
The delay is for ice, and people have most certainly been killed in accidents involving ice and cars. Perhaps the reason that Wake has been fortunate enough not to have fatalities in school buses during icy weather is BECAUSE the school system is cautious when the weather is inclement.
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For all of you complaining there's a delay but no/little snow, it's not the snow we're concerned about here. There was a period of time tonight where it wasn't snowing and there was an amount of liquid precipitation as temperatures dropped considerably. By 10:00 tomorrow morning temperatures are barely going to crest 20 degrees. There are going to be numerous slick spots out there.
Also you have to consider that the world doesn't center around the bit of road in front of your house. On my commute from downtown Durham to Cary this evening I saw a huge change in precipitation amounts/types.
The two hour delay at least helps step the congestion out so that less people are on the road at one time. There will be wrecks tomorrow morning. The delay lessens the congestion impacts. It's not ridiculous.
The delay is for ice, and people have most certainly been killed in accidents involving ice and cars. Perhaps the reason that Wake has been fortunate enough not to have fatalities in school buses during icy weather is BECAUSE the school system is cautious when the weather is inclement.
Yeah, I don't think we want our rubric to be "has any child been killed lately because of bad weather, if not go ahead and have school no matter the conditions."
I'm with michgc. I'm all for a two hour delay every day, but I work from home and don't need the childcare to go to the office.
I don't know how to quote text, but this is in reference to Hamish Forbes' reply.
No, I don't know of an incident in which a child's life ended because of a bus accident. And for that...I am eternally grateful.
It doesn't mean, however, that it shouldn't be considered. Student safety has to be a top priority.
Safety needs to be evaluated in an unemotional, rational way. More people are killed or seriously injured in Wake County by lightning strikes, poisonous snakes, gun violence, domestic abuse, and even by randomly falling trees than by school-bus accidents. The risk of death or serious injury by school-bus accident due to adverse weather in Wake County is negligible.
What, no one thinks we should wait for someone to be killed before we start calling delays? It's always a good idea to wait till the worst happens and THEN respond to it, isn't it?
Let's think about the personnel who have to be at work to get the buses rolling by 6 a.m. (magnet bus comes through my neighborhood at 6, which means it's probably on the road by 5:45, which means the bus driver is probably on the road from their home by 5....and so on), as well as to get the schools open in the morning (custodians and lead secretaries), and so on. It's not JUST about the kids.
P.S. Lightning, guns, snakes and domestic violence really have nothing to do with the discussion at hand.
Safety needs to be evaluated in an unemotional, rational way. More people are killed or seriously injured in Wake County by lightning strikes, poisonous snakes, gun violence, domestic abuse, and even by randomly falling trees than by school-bus accidents. The risk of death or serious injury by school-bus accident due to adverse weather in Wake County is negligible.
I agree wholeheartedly that often, people take issues like this and make them too emotional.
On the other hand, when your job is to consider the future risk of whether any spot in Wake County, which pretty much sits right on the snow/rain line for most storms, will be icy the next morning, when the predictions were all for a period of rain, turning to snow with temperatures dropping to the teens overnight and a high not reaching freezing the next day, a two hour delay seems appropriate to manage that risk, considering it non-emotionally.
Similarly, I imagine your chances of dying in all those things are probably as much or more than a roofer falling off a roof and drying in Wake County, at least if your only measuring stick is the number of roofers falling off and dying. That doesn't mean that we should just toss out the rules for safety in roofing as they almost certainly contribute to that safety record.
You also have to consider they can't really wait until midnight to make the decision without causing even more inconvenience to the parents and kids. The two hour delay allows them to come in in the morning and have time to make the decision to call off school or not. They are pretty much damned if they do and damned if they don't as some people are going to be inconvenience and or upset wither way.
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Our schools start too darn early. 
