#Brake4Buses: Dad catches violations on camera in De Pere

WBAY.COM ^ | 24 OCTOBER 2015 | Ellery McCardle

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Our latest #Brake4Buses story focuses on a busy road in a De Pere neighborhood: the intersection of Randall Avenue and North Broadway.

Steven Lepak caught on video a driver passing a stopped school bus this week, but says it’s happening more often this year.

“The incidents aren’t as extreme as the one I caught on video, but I would say once a week or more there is some type of incident with traffic and this bus stop,” said Lepak.

As Target 2 interviewed Lepak, we caught on camera, someone else passing a stopped school bus. This time, a car stopped next to the bus at the crosswalk but still drove through — and it happened in front of a De Pere police officer.

[Enigo54]

We have cameras OUTSIDE our busses, catch people all the time going through our lights, cops do NOTHING

[jocon307]

I must say that people here in NJ are pretty religious about stopping for the school buses.

[fireman15]

I don’t know about this situation, but around here school bus drivers seem to take great pleasure in keeping their stop signs out for extraordinary lengths of time until every kid in the bus has sat back down.

The most annoying thing busses do however is when they stop in front of seldom used railroad spurs going into local businesses and just sit there for fifteen to thirty seconds. These are not true railroad crossings just tracks going diagonally across a busy highway into the yards of a local businesses for loading and unloading purposes. I went to many motor vehicle accidents where cars ran into the back of busses which were sitting in the middle of a lane of the highway for these spurs. This is actually a divided highway that resembles an interstate. At this point some of our transit busses are now doing the same thing.

[Darksheare]

Saw a bizarre happening once.
Bus sitting at a stop sign NOT dropping off students, no lights, nothing, flips out over a car making a right hand turn onto the road the bus was on.
Completely weird.

[fruser1]

Buses take 50 cars off the road but they impact traffic like 500.

[Enigo54]

If you had the slightest idea of the regulations that REQUIRE us to become yellow roadblocks and our anger at not only having to follow them, but the fact that any whiney b**** can call our school and complain and we are under investigation.

I promise you, its not the drivers, its the LAW

[Darksheare]

Been run off the road by a schoolbus.
Driver classes illegally, then tried sideswiping me.
Of course, this was in NY state.

[Enigo54]

I am equally sure that is true! hahahah However our blind spots are (in some areas) close to 50 feet long. It is possible you weren’t seen. Ive lost cars in my mirrors!

Its a damned hard job, its stressful as we carry the most important cargo in the world and have to be 100% perfect every time.

[Darksheare]

No, he saw me.
He was behind me and passed illegally on a double yellow.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

As a school bus driver in Calgary, because of bylaws, we do not use the eight way flashers or bus-mounted stop signs. The same goes for many municipalities in Alberta. Also, in Calgary, because of bylaws within the city, we do not stop at RR crossings, though I do slow down and cross with caution. In the country, we do stop at RR crossings.

You complain of school bus drivers not turning off their signs until all kids are seated. That is a policy of all school bus companies that I know of in most jurisdictions. and concerns the SAFETY of the passengers. It is also likely the LAW in most jurisdictions! Why? Because a child can easily fall if a bus takes off before he/she is seated. In addition, the interior lights on the bus turn off when the door is closed, so the doors are left open until the child is seated, so he/she can SEE to be seated. As sunrise was 8:13AM yesterday in Calgary and ALL my kids are picked up BEFORE 8:10AM, the earliest at 7:15AM, I do not shut the door until they are all seated and my four way flashers and strobe remain on until then, also.

AFA your comment about stopping at ALL RR crossings, that is THE LAW! (Unless the municipality passes a bylaw, like Calgary.) If car drivers are too stupid to wtch out for buses, that's THEIR problem! It's not like the buses are hidden! They are big, and yellow, and have yellow reflective tape on them. They also have red flashing lights and large signage that says something similar to "STOP WHEN RED SIGNALS FLASHING". Many also have strobe lights!

If a driver is too stupid not to read or comprehend such signage, well, maybe they shouldn't be driving. Even my 20 passenger special needs buss weighs over 4,300kg (9,500lb), so if you run into my rear end when I'm stopped, likely the most damage to me or 'my kids', might be tiny lacerations from flying safety glass. AFA the bus? A little paint damage whereas your car most likely will be sold for scrap.

In case you are upset about the speed of school buses, in Alberta, like many jurisdictions, the speed limit for a bus bearing a 'SCHOOL BUS' sign is lower than other vehicles. (For example, the speed limit on expressways in Alberta is 100-110km/hr. For a 'SCHOOL BUS' it is 90km/hr.)

When it comes to drivers running into school buses, usually,

[Enigo54]

Well for that I scream HANG EM HIGH! And I mean that.

[Enigo54]

Mine weighs right at 40000lbs. I take great comfort in its weight because its gonna take a shot from a train or a loaded semi truck to disturb any of the kids within……now if it only had a nose on it……

[Darksheare]

It did surprise the crap out of me.
And it being NY, I doubt anything happened to him over it.

[Enigo54]

That driver should have been fired and NOW be spending time in jail….imo

[Darksheare]

We had a substitute driver smash all the windows out on one side of the bus by scraping a telephone pole.
He didn’t stop, drove to the school, then told everyone they weren’t hurt.
(Glass in eye on at least three of them.)
School moved him to “smaller” busses instead.
*snort*

[Enigo54]

Driver….FIRED and possibly prosecuted….Admin….FIRED and absolutely prosecuted!!!

[Darksheare]

Should.
Won’t happen.
That year they were busy claiming there was no drug problem in the Port Jervis school district.
“The mountains will keep the drugs out.” was what they said.
Meanwhile, a student had what amounted to a fully stocked bar in his locker.

It was nearby in Middletown where the school superintendent had the inappropriate homosexual relationship with the underage student. (And people supported him too.)

Just yet another tick mark on the long list of “Why NY is a toilet.”

And it isn’t just passenger vehicles who get the rotten end of certain driver misbehavior, driver on driver “hate crime” happens once or twice a year where some driver gets his undies in a bunch over the other driver being in front of him and they decide to “bump them” from behind.
With stuff like that, the disrespectful students, the moronic policies, the sheer idiocy on the roads, I’m surprised that anybody drives bus around here.
What doesn’t surprise me is the reduction in driver quality.

But that reduction is across the board, passenger, bus, truck, etc.
It’s like nobody takes being behind the wheel seriously anymore.

[fireman15]

If you can’t understand the frustration of waiting across the street from a school bus on a busy street because the driver won’t put his stop sign in until every child is seated then I think that you are the one who is stupid. I am not talking about those unfortunate enough to be stuck behind the bus... they obviously have to wait until the all the children have finally found a seat. Although I will tell you that where we live there are plenty of spots where a bus can pull off the road to wait for children to board. They of course do not use them.

As a firefighter I responded to many motor vehicle accidents where a bus was sitting in the middle of the road because of seldom used spurs crossing the road diagonally to storage yards for many businesses who never even used them. You can blame the motorists, but this idiotic law causes more injury and mayhem than it prevents. I have no problem with busses stopping for actual crossings that do not have warning lights and gates, but stopping at crossings that have tons of safety gear and spurs going into unoccupied business yards is nothing but stupid.

Apparently kids in Calgary do not react the same way kids around here do when their bus is rear-ended. Around here even the kids know if they complain about anything they might get some kind of award from the drivers insurance company. We transport every uninjured kid that has done even the smallest amount of sniffling as a precaution and to protect the fire department from liability. It is all a giant nightmare for everyone concerned all over an idiotic law that most likely causes far more injuries and death than what it prevents. Are bus drivers really so much more stupid and unobservant than the average driver that they need this law to keep them from colliding with trains?

And for your information I too have a bus drivers license. I have it because I drive buses as a volunteer at retirement centers and church. As a fire officer I took dozens and dozens of train safety courses over the years. All I ask for is a little common sense please!

[Enigo54]

Well I hope you take a grain of comfort in knowing that someone, SOMEWHERE, does.