Asshole Jeep Driver Passes Stopped School Bus While Kid Is Crossing

"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro) 01/29/2019 at 21:00 • Filed to: dashcam, passing, school bus, safety

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A dashcam-wielding truck driver caught !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Wisconsin last week:

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Through the eyes of a large truck’s dashcam, watch as the school bus ahead goes through two stops to drop off students. The first one goes smoothly, but the next one nearly ends in disaster as a Jeep Cherokee (XJ) flies by both the truck and the school bus, which has its stop arm extended and red flashers activated. A child can be seen briefly (extending the length of the stop by about five seconds) retrieving mail from the nearby mailbox before crossing in front of the bus as the Jeep hits its brakes at the very last second.

According to the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post, “the operator was located and cited.” The post also notes that this was not only a passing school bus violation, but a matter of dangerous passing as well, regardless of the bus’s presence. Watch as the Jeep’s brake lights come on when the driver realizes that it’s a school bus, yet is still carrying too much speed to react adequately to the situation. Luckily, no one was harmed.

I think we can all agree that there’s a good chance the Jeep driver had no intention of passing a stopped bus and didn’t even notice it until having nearly cleared the truck. But bus or no bus, this was still a dangerous maneuver on ac count of the speed differential .

This might also be a good time to discuss the use of hazard lights. Some say that in cases like this, the truck should have turned theirs on to help communicate the hazard ahead. I, for one, disagree with this idea because while it might have persuaded the Jeep driver to slow down, it could also have implied that the truck itself IS the hazard, stopping and inviting others to pass, instead of looking like the last in line of a normal traffic backup. What are your thoughts?

(Oh and BTW, if you’re wondering about the camera system, it appears to be a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .)

ranwhenparked > Urambo Tauro 01/29/2019 at 21:07

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Chances are, the Jeep driver was tailgating the vehicle directly in front too closely to even see any traffic beyond it, in which case, no business trying to pass anything. 

atfsgeoff > Urambo Tauro 01/29/2019 at 21:21

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I’m gonna be the asshole here and argue that school buses should not be repeatedly stopping on a main road like that for every individual child. They are themselves a road hazard and a traffic obstruction, especially in areas where afternoon rush hour picks up early.

If the driver of a school bus sees a line of cars piled up behind, that’s an indicator that you should pull over, put on the flashers (but NOT red lights or stop sign), and let all the built-up traffic pass you.

Just Jeepin' > Urambo Tauro 01/29/2019 at 21:34

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I learned several years ago that in any unexpected full-stop situation you should put your hazards on, but unless I saw an idiot that dangerous  behind me I’d ordinarily not consider a school bus an unexpected situation. Usually they’re so tall and obvious there’s no need.

wafflesnfalafel > Urambo Tauro 01/29/2019 at 21:40

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wow - bust h is a$$. Just got lucky the kid didn’t get pancaked... I hate getting stuck behind buses b ut I also hate running over my neighbor’ s kids.

Nothing > atfsgeoff 01/29/2019 at 21:42

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What’s the cutoff for how far apart kids houses need to be for them to not be dropped off individually? I can tell you this much, I don’t want my nine year old walking, say, a half mile down a narrow shoulder,  two lane highway with a 55MPH speed limit to meet up at a group bus stop.

nj959 > atfsgeoff 01/29/2019 at 21:43

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Obviously I would never pass a schoolbus when it’s stopped like that, but I will admit to getting a bit annoyed whenever they s top every couple hundred feet like you describe. There’s one 4 lane road near where I live where the bus stops at literally every block, about 10 times in a mile. It’s very rare that I’ll see someone pass it while its letting kids off, but everytime the lights shut off about twenty cars will floor it so they can get ahead of the bus before it stops again. It’s honestly pretty funny to watch.

Merfthemadmauler > atfsgeoff 01/29/2019 at 21:45

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Sorry I’ll be the asshole that tells you you’re fucked up. Everyone knows what school buses are and what they do. There’s no way that traffic is  any reason whatsoever to put a child in jeapordy. Anyone who does is an amoral fuckit and I’m sure the penalty the Jeep driver got is no way proportional to nearly killing that kid.

ranwhenparked > atfsgeoff 01/29/2019 at 21:47

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I think usually, the door-to-door service is in areas where there are too few kids to make a centralized collection point (bus stop) impractical. Although, when I was in high school, I do remember having one bus stop for the whole neighborhood, which was a mile from my house on the dot.

G rade school, obviously , wasn’t as far of a walk, but they still only had a couple of stops. And then, the school itself was only about a mile and a half away, so in nice weather, there wasn’t any point waiting for the bus anyway.

I mean, I think it does get a little ridiculous at times, I know I’ve been behind school buses that stopped at like every other house, when you figure they could have stopped once at a corner and let everyone off, but I don’t think that’s the norm. 

atfsgeoff > Nothing 01/29/2019 at 21:50

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I was gonna say, one stop every mile sounds reasonable, meaning the farthest any kid would have to walk is half a mile. I walked a mile each way to school and back from 4th through 8th grade myself, and then biked to high school in 9th and 10th grade, 4 miles each way, before I got my own car. Our school district didn’t have buses for anyone but the special ed students.

atfsgeoff > Merfthemadmauler 01/29/2019 at 21:52

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Traffic by its very nature puts millions of kids in jeopardy every day. Stopped school buses are just one factor among many.

The Dummy Gummy > atfsgeoff 01/29/2019 at 21:54

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Should probably find a different route or a different time to travel.

Brickman > atfsgeoff 01/29/2019 at 22:02

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I live next to a rural 2 lane highway, I wouldn’t let my child walk 10 feet along a roadway with 55 or higher speed limit with no large shoulder.  I have to wait for no traffic so I can check the mail without getting run over.

Nothing > atfsgeoff 01/29/2019 at 22:34

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We’ll have to disagree. The road depicted here, no way I’d let my kid walk a half a mile, especially if speeding/reckless Jeep is an indication of local traffic.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ranwhenparked 01/29/2019 at 22:48

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There’s a big difference between picking up in a neighborhood and a rural route. I’ve experienced both. When we lived in a larger city, the bus would stop and pick up all the kids at our apartment complex - maybe 30 of us. We’d take up 1/4 of the bus. It only took a few more stops and the bus was full. The whole route was less than half an hour.

When I lived in the country, t he lots were 5 to 10 acres, so it was half a mile for me to get to the rural highway, over 2 miles for the kids at the back of the neighborhood. Doing that in the winter absolutely sucked. Eventually, the county took over the roads and the school bus was allowed to drive in and pick everyone up near their homes. That was fantastic, especially for the smaller kids. The whole route took over an hour and the bus wasn’t nearly as full.

Spanfeller is a twat > Nothing 01/29/2019 at 22:54

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Perhaps the issue is that the school bus has to stop on a 55mph road? How the hell is the limit that high if kids are crossing daily

Wagon Guy drives a Boostang > Urambo Tauro 01/29/2019 at 23:15

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This seems to be an issue nationwide as I see reports of it from all over. All three local news stations down here in Austin have done reports on it.

It’s weird seeing Dunn County show up here. My family is from there, though the family farm got sold off more than a decade ago.

shop-teacher > atfsgeoff 01/30/2019 at 00:40

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That's not a neighborhood. Where should the kid be dropped off? A mile down the rural highway that has no sidewalks?

atfsgeoff > shop-teacher 01/30/2019 at 00:48

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Half a mile, but yes. What’s so bad about walking half a mile on grass?

CaptDale - is secretly British > Urambo Tauro 01/30/2019 at 13:24

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What a jack ass

Nauraushaun > Urambo Tauro 01/30/2019 at 14:56

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In Australia. Busses don’t stop in the middle of the road like that, they pull off so they don’t fuck with the traffic. And kids are instructed to wait until the bus has left or cross behind the bus.

The dudes manouver was a bit much, but the kid had a death wish.

If I was stuck behind that bus I'd be pissed off too.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Urambo Tauro 01/31/2019 at 19:32

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1st: I am against excessive use of hazard lights. In my area of the country it is common during decreased visibility (fog, heavy rain, etc)  to use hazards as you would a rear fog light: to increase rear visibility. Some argue this is a legitimate use, but to me it makes it impossible to distinguish between actually stopped/ spun out/ wrecked vehicles and otherwise operable vehicles. In the situation above, I think it would have encouraged the Jeep (or others) to pass and could even be used as an argument as to why the Jeep was justified (trying to pass efficiently, didn’t know the semi was stopped for a bus).

2nd: That camera is sweet .