accidents
Topic: just wondering
this one i also posted on news--accidents
in a way, i have an issue with this "result"....
the driver sweeved to avoid a semis load that fell off his trailer. NOW I WAS NOT THERE SO THIS IS ONLY MY PERSPECTIVE....unless the driver of this bus just passed this truck and took notice as to what he was hauling she did not know what it was and therefore did not want to hit it.....(at one point during interviews even one of the passengers said it was something that he didn't think they could just hit or run over....we could have been driving and each of us done things differently but it was not us and how can we say anything AFTER KNOWING ALL THE INFORMATION. did the driver know what that stuff was that fell in the road? probably not.
now here again we could all be properly trained to drive and all that but until it actually happens how do we know (even if we are prepared and trained---do we know what we are going to do) will you oversteer or understeer or run over the stuff and hope you don't go airborne or slam to a stop. will we make a mistake or do it perfectly?
i guess for me that is the bottom line---perfection ---we are not all perfect and yet we are expected to be as drivers (a huge weight on our shoulders) and if we aren't people get hurt or worse die and then we could be fired or sued or both.
again don't get me wrong,....i am not talking about those accidents that happen when a driver backs into something that isn't moving or turns and hits that sign or a roof or parked car (minor accidents yet very expensive that only cost money not lives). I am talking about all the other ones that people get hurt-----the ACCIDENTS.
do you agree or disagree?
HERE IS THE STORY I AM REFERING TO:

On Thursday, the Department of Public Safety released a report stating that the fatal bus crash from March 29th was the result of “faulty evasive action” on behalf of the bus driver.

The West Brook High School girl`s varsity soccer team was headed to a playoff game in Humble when their bus flipped killing two students, sophomore Ashley Brown and Senior Alicia Bonura.

The accident left more than a dozen students with serious injuries; three still remained in the hospital Thursday night according to a spokesperson. “They`re all progressing well,” said the families’ spokesperson Kristi Fuselier, “It`s just we`re starting on our long journey to recovery.”








Here is a summary of what the investigator, Trooper Nathan Pierce, believes happened:

The truck carrying the trailer was headed eastbound on U.S. 90. The Sun Travel Limousines charter bus was traveling westbound on the same route. The trailer lost a portion of its load (the insulation) after a strap came loose. The objects landed in the westbound lane. The bus driver swerves to the right to avoid hitting the fallen insulation, then the bus goes off the road onto the grass. The bus then veers to the left, going back across the roadway in an attempt to regain control. The bus driver takes faulty evasive action to the right causing the bus to tip over on its left side. The bus slides into a ditch facing east before coming to a stop. The truck turned around to gather the lost load. The bus driver stated that she had cleared the windshield from being fogged prior to the crash.

bus accident
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: news
this is a story that has been in the news for a while. the info about a cell phone and radio is new info. just thought i'd share this with everyone....just another reason not to talk on the phone even if he wasn't.....they think he was if i am reading this right.


PHILADELPHIA (AP) - July 20, 2006 - The mother of a girl who lost her hand in a bus crash that injured dozens of children on their way home from a field trip is suing the driver, the bus company, and other parties involved in the accident.

Makeba Fitzgerald alleged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the driver, 18-year-old Kevin Talbert Jr., was distracted by his cell phone and a radio while driving children home to Philadelphia from the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

The suit also claims that Talbert should not have been driving, since federal law prohibits anyone under 21 from driving a commercial vehicle between states. His employer, Yellowbird Bus Co., of Philadelphia, is named as a defendant. "They booked the trip," Bernard Smalley, Fitzgerald's lawyer, said Thursday. "They knew he would be crossing state lines."

A preliminary police report on the July 5 accident near Aberdeen, Md., found that a truck cab driven by Michael Schultz went out of its lane on northbound Interstate 95 and hit the bus on its right side. The bus swerved into the median and back across both lanes of I-95, turning over on its left side and coming to rest on the shoulder.

Nearly 60 people were injured in the crash, including Fitzgerald's daughter, 8-year-old Deneik Brownlee.
Deneik was thrown from the bus and ended up with her right arm pinned under it. Her hand was severed, and she suffered multiple fractures to her right elbow and severe trauma to her shoulders and left arm and hand, according to the lawsuit.
She is now recuperating at a Philadelphia hospital.

The bus was one of six returning to Norris Square Day Camp in Philadelphia from Baltimore.

Smalley said it's not clear whether Talbert was using his phone at the time of the accident.

The lawsuit maintains that both Talbert and Schultz were driving unsafely.

Cowan Systems, a Baltimore trucking company that employed Schultz, was also named as a defendant.

An attorney for Schultz, of Northeast, Md., and Cowan Systems did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

The suit, filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, alleges negligence, infliction of emotional distress and loss of consortium. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

school directions
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: site updates
I think I finally have the list of all the directions to the schools that we drive to and for in the nebraska/iowa/mo. area. although i did not add any for Topeka and anything going out of kansas city. If you want me to add them I can. Hope this helps all of us. It has been needed to be updated for a while now.
thanks for the patience.(and for the updates to the schools. if anyone sees any mistakes let me know and I will change it.)
later

news joke of the day
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: joke
A tour bus driver is driving with a bus load of seniors down a highway when he is tapped on his shoulder by a old lady. She offers him a handful of peanuts, which he gratefully munches up.

After about 15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of peanuts.

She repeats this gesture about five more times.

When she is about to hand him another batch again he asks the old lady,

"Why don’t you eat the peanuts yourself?". "We can't chew them because we've no teeth", she replied.

The puzzled driver asks, "Why do you buy them then?". The old lady replied, "We just love the chocolate around them."

men vs women
Topic: just wondering
bear with me with this. hopefully i won't veer to far from the main idea.....
lately there has been a few accidents involving buses and women drivers in the news. now don't get me wrong men get into accidents also. we all do. but i wonder if people aren't getting the wrong impression and think women drivers should not be on the road.....
I know plenty of guys who think that women should not drive in a nascar race for instance. personally i see nothing wrong with it as long as she is good and is going to win races---otherwise she is just there for publicity and to be made fun of. (from what i have seen the women drivers in nascar has either been there for publicity or stuck their foot in and only ran a few races only to finish in the back of the pack. sure they got their foot in the door but in a way it makes it hard for other women who are good cause those who ran with the "big boys" already have just made women look bad (as jr. once said----tell her to get out of the way before she wrecks someone and "they better give her some better equiptment so I don't have to keep passing her every 15 laps. She is a good driver." give em equality and they could win. watch sarah fisher if she gets a good ride.
give all of all us a chance and we are as good as the guys (although i must admit there are women drivers out there that are more worried about their hair and makeup than where there car is on the road or where it is headed----they make the rest of us look like "dumb blondes" (no offence to any blondes out there)
a while back i was taking a group on a short day tour. i was standing by the door helping everyone on and an older guy asked me if i was driving. i said yes. he turned around to the others and told them he was not going. "I am not riding with a lady driver" i wasn't sure if he was joking or not. either way i looked at all of them and said "you have never ridden with a female driver before" he said no. so i said "ok tell ya what, if you go with us as you planned and when the trip is over if you still think that i can't drive as good or better than any other male drivers you have ridden with i will reimberse you for what you paid to go on this trip." he agreed and got on the bus. when the night was over and he got off the bus to go home i was expecting him to say pay up--if not just out of spite and to get his money back but instead he looked at me and smiled and shook my hand. he said "it was good riding with you. you are just as good as any man and better than some of them i have ridden with." i thanked him for the best compliment i could ever get.
again i must say I love my job.
so what i am trying to say is some women are just as good as some men. I am your equal. (at least on the road....lol)

today's joke
Mood:  mischievious
Now Playing: I can't drive 55
Topic: joke
A priest and a bus driver

A priest and a bus driver both died and went to heaven at the same time. They get to the pearly gates where St. Peter greets them. He motions to the priest, and they both hop in a jeep and go out the back door. There are about 50 acres of rolling hills with a little cottage on the knoll. St. Peter turns to the priest and says "This will be yours for eternity. A perfect little cottage, right next to a wishing well. Anything you wish on that wishing well will come true guarantied." The priest says, "Oh, thank you so much. This I shall enjoy!" St. Peter drops off the priest, goes back to the pearly gates and motions to the bus driver. They hop in a stretch limo and go out the front door. There are about 500 acres of land, with mountains and lakes and rivers. There is a huge castle on one of the mountains with about 200 rooms. St. Peter says "This will be yours for eternity. You can live in that castle with servants to wait on you hand and foot, and you can have everything you want." The bus driver looks and St. Peter and says "Well, now, don't think I'm not grateful, but shouldn't the priest get all this, not me? Shouldn't I get the cottage and 50 acres instead?" St. Peter just laughs and says "The reason you get all this is because when the priest preached, everyone fell asleep. Now, when you drove your bus, people prayed!"

joke for yesterday
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: joke
Penguin Delivery Service


One day, a bus driver is on his route, when he runs across a delivery van stranded at the side of the road. The van driver, who works for the zoo, pleads with the bus driver to do him a favor. He offers a $100 bill to the bus driver to help him deliver a truckload of penguins to the zoo. Agreeing, the bus driver proceeds to load two dozen penguins onto his bus. Then, off they drive towards the zoo. An hour later, the delivery driver gets his van fixed and heads off to the zoo to catch up with his delivery. As he?s driving down the road, he sees the bus driver and the busload of penguins heading in the opposite direction. He turns his van around and chases him, catches up to the bus and pulls over them onto the side of the road. He asks the bus driver, "I thought I gave you a $100 dollars to go and take the penguins to the zoo for me!" "Calm down," the bus driver says, "I took the penguins to the zoo. We had change left over, so now I'm taking them to the movies!"

true story
Mood:  chatty
Topic: driving adventures
This is a true story. It was told to me by another driver. i hope those drivers don't mind i repeat this story it is just too cute not to share.
A driver was doing his regular run and another in uniform was riding with him to get another bus.
at some point in the trip the driver who was riding went back to use the bathroom. on the way back he said hi to a little boy whose eyes got very big. when he came back up he again said hi and asked him how he was doing and if he was having a good trip. the little boy said yes. then asked who was driving. he just smiled at the boy and said oh i guess i better get back up there huh?
I wonder if his mom, who was with the boy, ever explained it to him. :)

just starting
hello,
just getting started with this. am hoping that it connects to the site and thus i can share my thoughts instead of just adding links and all that stuff. so....we'll see. this is a start though. still work in progress.
more later
kristie