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4 Dead in Minnesota School Bus Crash
FOX news ^ | Feb, 19, 2008

Posted on 02/19/2008 7:04:24 PM PST by Kimmers

COTTONWOOD, Minn. —

Authorities say four students have been killed in a school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota. Minnesota State Patrol Lieutenant Mark Peterson says the students died when their Lakeview School bus was hit by a van this afternoon on a highway near Cottonwood, about 2 hours southwest of Minneapolis. The bus then collided with a pickup and tipped on its side.

• Click here for photos.

The victims weren't immediately identified, and their ages weren't immediately given.

At least 14 people were hurt. The school bus was carrying 40 people at the time.

The Marshall Independent reported that the first motorists on the scene were asked to take some children to the hospital.

"I parked my car and called 911, and ran to the school bus and the driver was handing kids out the door as fast as I could take them," Karen Mahlum told the newspaper.

Other motorists also stopped and took kids from the driver. "You just wanted to make sure it was safe," she said. "They were screaming and screaming on the bus. There were so many kids."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: alianissmorales; bushcrash; olgamarinafranco; overcrowded; schoolbus; seatbelts
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To: digger48
I understand.

And to be PC....

BS!!!!!!!

heavy belt buckles as weapons, injuring other riders..

1) If we can make cars out of high stress plastic / polymers, there is probably a seat belt out there already.

2) My boy is 13, rides a school bus every day. Three times this year the driver has come to a complete stop, in a 4 lane (4 lane southbound) road, "If you don't sit down and be quiet, YOU...and YOU...and YOU...are getting OFF...THIS bus RIGHT NOW!

The boy says this driver is, "A great big black guy.."

As opposed to other drivers he has had, "Hispanic woman - we can't understand a word she says and she has no idea what we are saying..and all hell breaks loose when she is driving......"

It is next to impossible to make sure that all students keep their belts properly fastened, so that they are not injured by the belts in an accident.

A BOLD face lie.

I own a 2005 Chevy Tahoe. Within 6 seconds of putting the vehicle in F, it lets me know who does not have the seat belt on, a door that did not close all the way.....

What, BlueBird never heard of this technolgy?

If a bus has to be evacuated in an emergency, such as a fire, panicked or disoriented students might be trapped by their belts.

1) The bus gets hit by another vehicle.....the bus hits another vehicle....bodies are going flying....yes?

2) If a bus has to be evacuated in an emergency...

And it seems like the emergency is usually the result of an impact...not a driver going full throttle into a fire storm, not a driver seeing the Horryweird crap of a bridge disappearing, during a Magnitude 95 earthquake........

The absolute dumbest argument of this is....

When drivers balance these concerns against the many safety features already built into the design of school buses, they conclude that given the way buses are presently operated, they are safer without seat belts.

Right! Like these Union Hacks are even qualified to talk about this...........they conclude........

I conclude that for the most part, we hire idiots to drive our children around....

The number of times I call the district about a "hot rod" driver in a "skool bus" is ever increasing.......

21 posted on 02/19/2008 9:13:40 PM PST by LasVegasMac (Islam: Bringing the world death and destruction for 1400 years!)
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To: Dan Evans
Seems kind of funny that they don’t have seat belts on school buses considering the high center of gravity and all.

Looks like the "education industry" doesn't give a flip about children. If they did there would be seat belts on buses and signs telling kids to "buckle up" that they could all read.

22 posted on 02/19/2008 9:20:21 PM PST by GOPJ (Rig satellites with small explosives - save $10 to $15 million...)
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To: digger48
the govt would never allow the precious senior citizens to go any place without proper seats and seat belts....

let's face the fact....since kids don't vote, they don't count as much as the elderly....so the elderly will get the protection and the kids will die in school bus accidents....

23 posted on 02/19/2008 9:22:16 PM PST by cherry
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To: Kimmers
When Fire Chief Dale Louwagie was asked what the community could do, he said simply, “Pray.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I wonder how many lacerations, neck injuries, and broken bones, and possibly even deaths, could have been prevented in this accident by the use of seat belts?

24 posted on 02/20/2008 2:10:41 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: Kimmers
Per this link....

4 dead in school bus crash

....a briefing at 1 pm local time.

25 posted on 02/20/2008 3:31:33 AM PST by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: DaveLoneRanger; 2Jedismom; aberaussie; Aggie Mama; agrace; Antoninus; arbooz; bboop; bill1952; ...

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. If you want on/off this list, please freepmail me. The main Homeschool Ping List by DaveLoneRanger handles the homeschool-specific articles. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list.

This is going to hit that little town hard. That's about the size of where we live and if you're not related to someone, you've grown up with them. They really need our prayers.

26 posted on 02/20/2008 5:25:36 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: SoftballMominVA

ping


27 posted on 02/20/2008 5:26:31 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: WKB; Sopater; Vision; Salvation

ping


28 posted on 02/20/2008 5:27:42 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: LasVegasMac
The justification that I was told for no seat belts is the danger of having little ones trapped in the event the driver is incapacitated and the danger of the belts flying across the cabin. In a car, the adult to child ration is fairly small; in a bus there could be conceivably 40-50 kids to one adult and in an emergency, who gets the kids out? Not to mention, kids 8 and under should technically be in a booster seat, not a regular seat anyway.

I'm not saying that buses should or should not have belts - just sharing what I was told by a transportation coordinator when I asked why there were none on our buses.

29 posted on 02/20/2008 5:54:22 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
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To: SoftballMominVA
I know, it's just that you would think that with all the technology available, there would be something workable that could be used.

Frustrating.

30 posted on 02/20/2008 6:04:16 AM PST by LasVegasMac (Islam: Bringing the world death and destruction for 1400 years!)
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To: Kimmers

So?...What would the NEA favor?

Seat belts that would take money out of the teachers’ pockets, or unsafe school buses?

Answer: More money in the teachers’ pockets every time!


31 posted on 02/20/2008 6:21:51 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: digger48
Everyone of the arguments that you posted were used to resist seat belt usage in cars!

Follow the money!

Kids do not have seat belts in their buses because the NEA doesn’t want them. It would mean less money for their teachers. NEA never has, does not now, and never will give a fig about kids.

32 posted on 02/20/2008 6:24:32 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: SoftballMominVA
That is another problem. I pulled my son off the bus because I didn’t feel it was safe for the driver to babysit that many kids and drive. I offered to get a group of moms to volunteer but was told no. They need a second person, riding. We don’t even fly adults without attendants.
33 posted on 02/20/2008 6:31:37 AM PST by CindyDawg
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To: CindyDawg
I would have done the same.

Schools need to look into placing a paid assistant on buses to be an extra pair of eyes and hands for the driver.

34 posted on 02/20/2008 7:17:50 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
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To: SoftballMominVA

We have those in our county. Both driver and assitant are uniformed and all business. That being said, we choose to drive our son to school. Our son was transferred to a different school from our “home” school and still only 10 minutes away (as opposed to .8 miles). The bus ride would be with middle school kids, which we didn’t like. My hubby drops him off in the morning, I pick him up at dismissal.

Prayers for the kids on this bus and their families.


35 posted on 02/20/2008 7:26:21 AM PST by WV Mountain Mama (My only resolution this year is to make a bigger carbon foot print.)
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To: streetpreacher; Ottofire; marinamuffy; flynmudd; twonie; Peace4EarthNow; Nightshift; WileyPink; ...

Baptist Prayer Ping


36 posted on 02/20/2008 7:50:50 AM PST by WKB (No Fred Causes Electile Dysfunction: Can't get aroused about any of them)
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To: wintertime

“So?...What would the NEA favor?

Seat belts that would take money out of the teachers’ pockets, or unsafe school buses?

Answer: More money in the teachers’ pockets every time!”

CRAP!


37 posted on 02/20/2008 8:14:13 AM PST by swmobuffalo ("We didn't seek the approval of Code Pink and MoveOn.org before deciding what to do")
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To: wintertime

“Kids do not have seat belts in their buses because the NEA doesn’t want them. It would mean less money for their teachers. NEA never has, does not now, and never will give a fig about kids.”

And more CRAP. Unless you can provide conclusive PROOF that the NEA had a hand in preventing seatbelts on schoolbuses, statements such as these only show your total ignorance and BIAS towards anything dealing with public schools. PROVIDE THE PROOF!

And don’t even get me started on the NEA.


38 posted on 02/20/2008 8:16:38 AM PST by swmobuffalo ("We didn't seek the approval of Code Pink and MoveOn.org before deciding what to do")
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To: Kimmers

Prayers for the children and families in your old hometown.


39 posted on 02/20/2008 8:29:52 AM PST by Tired of Taxes (Dad, I will always think of you.)
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To: wintertime
Kids do not have seat belts in their buses because the NEA doesn’t want them. It would mean less money for their teachers.

UM, hate to tell you this, but school buses used by private and religious schools do not have seatbelts either, care to explain that? I'm sure you won't as that would ruin your anti-public school mantra, wouldn't it?

40 posted on 02/20/2008 8:40:12 AM PST by Gabz (Don't tell my mom I'm a lobbyist, she thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse)
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