Updates on the Chattanooga Bus Accident that Killed 6 Children

"PotbellyJoe and 42 others" (potbellyjoe)
12/15/2016 at 12:52 • Filed to: None

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I’d like to think my local bussing company has the wherewithal and presence of mind to thoroughly check into the driving habits of the bus operators in our school district, but I also know it is not exactly a highly paid, nor highly sought, career.

Hopefully, this tragedy will impress on district-heads everywhere how important this is.

20 over in a 30, using a phone while driving, etc. etc. This is just horrific.

DISCUSSION (13)

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 13:01

From elementary school experience I found that school bus drivers usually aren’t the best. Every couple months some of the buses lined up front the school would tap each other a bit, usually enough to cause denting or loss of mirrors. Luckily, my middle school bus driver was quite good. He was a retired Brit, who used to stage rally. Nothing like a touch of oppo in a school bus to make the turn on the hill before the school (sheet ice).

vondon302 > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 13:05

Wasn’t a bad job until they sub contracted them all out.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 13:11

I will say that the school bus drivers for our district are an absolute menace to society. I’m not sure that they are quite so speedy as this guy, but the levels of incompetence that they demonstrate on a daily basis is jaw-dropping.

RallyWrench > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 13:15

Just unbelievable and tragic. My dad drove school buses for a little while, and was good at it, but the pay is shit and the district dicks them around to no end and asks them to half-ass their mandatory bus inspections. I’d call this case in Chattanooga negligent on the part of the district.

Takuro Spirit > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 13:16

I’ve been following this semi-closely, but hadn’t heard this.

To be allowed to drive a bus full of kids but not allowed to rent a car at his age, plus his past record and complaints against him.... shit needs to change. Yeah Durham is adding better cameras and whatnot, but they really gotta start training/finding better people to haul kiddos around.

That said, I drive my kids myself. The few times I’ve been on a bus with them for field trips and whatnot... well its shocking to see how many basic traffic laws they ignore. But maybe I would too if I had to cart around a huge echo’y tube full of brats that even with teachers and chaperoning parents on board can’t control.

PotbellyJoe and 42 others > RallyWrench
12/15/2016 at 13:30

We have had 3 really good bus drivers on my kids’ routes, but all three were moved to different routes because of one mom’s complaining about each of them.

If the only thing consistent in each complaint is one parent, it doesn’t take a genius to realize where most of the blame should land...

RallyWrench > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 13:34

That’s ridiculous.

PotbellyJoe and 42 others > RallyWrench
12/15/2016 at 13:44

Yep, and of course her husband is a “brave and noble” fireman in our county. He’s also roughly 200 pounds overweight, but I don’t know if that helps battle flames.

She is categorically obnoxious, notoriously late for nearly everything, and I know that the bus has pulled away from her stop, or kept her kids on the bus in the afternoon because she was either late in getting them to the stop in the morning (“He saw me running down the sidewalk towards the stop, he should have waited.”) or because she wasn’t there at drop off (for children younger than 3rd grade a parent or guardian has to be at pick up or the kid goes back to school and you can get them at aftercare.)

So because she didn’t follow the rules, she harps about how terrible, or rude the bus driver was to her and boom, they get reassigned.

My wife is “friends” with her and the woman is constantly asking my wife about the bus drivers’ treatments of our children, which has always been really good because we’re not shitheads.

RallyWrench > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 14:02

Please, I only have two palms and one face! Sounds like the bus drivers rightfully had enough of her shit. I know people like that, and try to avoid spending time with them in any way possible.

AfromanGTO > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 14:51

Sounds like the fat bitch needs to be slapped, and roll fatass husband down hill.

merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 20:50

Doesn’t the linked article just say the phone use was while parked? Or did I miss something. The speeding is bad enough, but if the phone wasn’t in play, then it wasn’t a factor in this instance.

PotbellyJoe and 42 others > merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc
12/15/2016 at 21:39

Article says it differently than another article that said it was in use. They’re still in discovery, so who knows...

merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > PotbellyJoe and 42 others
12/15/2016 at 22:33

I see. The facts will come out eventually I guess.