The Bus Driver
15 Years Experience
South, ..
Female, 37
I have been a bus driver since late 2006. I know the inside story, the scoop, the down low dirt of what it takes to be a bus driver, how to handle kids and adults, and how to survive on the "streets" so to speak. I used to have a blog, feel free to browse it or ask me a question here.
Far as I can tell the notifications are left up to individual bus companies. I would assume it is based on severity of accident. If the bus was involved in a minor fender bender where no children are hurt, it is likely they will be either transferred to another bus and then delivered home or to school, or the bus is undamaged so it is able to deliver a student to and from school. You should review your individual school system policies to see what their protocol is on notifying parents of bus accidents.
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The citations are usually handled by the school. The bus driver will turn the citation into the proper authorities (principal or supervisor) and the citation will be handled from there. The consequence depends on the severity of the behavior written on the citation. For example: two kids in a fight will get 3 days off the bus but the kid who gets in trouble for using foul language might only get a warning. It depends on your school districts policy.
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Sorry for the delay in reply. Usually it means that the bus is governed to a certain speed that it can't exceed. Some buses have alarms to notify the driver of a speed exceeded in which case the bus will automatically slow. Other buses will just hit that maximum speed and simply slow or hold at that max speed.
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As long as you are following procedures your boss should back you up. We've had parents threaten to get us fired, but in the end they look like the idiots because we are following all procedures and policies in regards to bus and student behavior. I wouldn't worry too much unless you are doing something that is in clear violation of the rules.
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Judy,
Sometimes dispatchers are under a lot more stress in situations that are emergencies or safety issues. I would recommend taking a step back and listening to the radio chatter that occurs during an incident. Two common incidents we have in my area are vehicle accidents and trains. While neither really involves a school bus other than the knowledge to reroute in the case of an emergency or to save time, the conversations often go something like this:
Vehicle accident -
Random bus driver - x to bus shop, there has been a vehicle accident at the intersection of x and x. Advised that other drivers reroute to avoid.
Bus shop - 10-4 advising drivers to avoid intersection of x and x.
Other bus driver - What color was the car/truck involved?
Still another one - Who got in an accident?
Third - What intersection was it?
Fourth - How did they get into an accident is the whole intersection blocked off?
Fifth - Bus shop, i had my radio down and didnt hear what was said.....
I could go on but then you get the idea. The same occurs when a train is blocking an intersection. Finally emergencies involving other buses can be as stressful when you have 5+ people who are offering to help but are running over each other on the radio at the chance to be the first to gawk at the incident. Our bus shop actually tells us to stay off the radio as it is distracting and frustrating because the bus shop OR the driver involved in the emergency cannot seem to key up on the radio because of the flurry of idiotic activity from the other "well meaning" bus drivers. I've even taken to calling the bus shop by cell phone to avoid the incessant radio chatter and questions regarding the incident from drivers OTHER than dispatch.
Point is, sometimes taking a step back and evaluating whether our voices are needed can sometimes make the few times we do decide to step up and help that much more meaningful.
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The bus driver should stop at every stop on his or her route, however waiting is left up to the individual bus driver. You may need to adjust your time in going down to your bus stop to ensure you do not miss the stop. The bus driver may have a new stop or has needed to adjust the time of your bus stop in order to make things run more smoothly. Additionally, there might have been a substitute on the bus that was unaware of the stop. I recommend being out at the stop at least 5 minutes ahead of time. If I stop at a stop, I will typically wait 5 seconds before closing the door and moving on. If I see students coming towards the bus, I will wait. However if the student is chronically late to the stop or dawdles and doesn't come directly to the bus in a timely manner, then I am more apt to shut the door and leave the student behind, especially if they have been given a warning about the time they are to be at the stop.
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I would need examples of the questions being asked in order to better understand the situation. That being said I rarely ask any child any side of a situation but his or her own. For example, on my bus on Friday, I had let one of my more challenging students sit further back from the front. As such, he subsequently threw something at other kids which made a big problem on the bus. Instead of accusing any one child, I asked each child what happened and their side to the story. This stopped them from being upset over the situation and allowed them to control their side to it.In the end, I got the truth about what happened, correlated by several kids, and not one of them accused the other of doing it.
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