New Jersey school bus accident

Whizzer

Whizzer

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I do not know if there was a thread relating to this incident and if so, this may be incorporated with it if management decides to do so.

It happened because the school bus driver missed the turnoff to Waterloo Village and was making an illegal u-turn on I-80. Not too smart as I-80 is direct link into the New York and Newark metropolitan areas. Lot of fast moving traffic. Not as fast as the speedway between Dallas and Fort Worth but still ........

I thought this video might help some see where this accident took place. Note the rear frame of the school bus and how it bent.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/05/nj_school_bus_accident_driver.html
 
Whizzer said:
I do not know if there was a thread relating to this incident and if so, this may be incorporated with it if management decides to do so.

It happened because the school bus driver missed the turnoff to Waterloo Village and was making an illegal u-turn on I-80. Not too smart as I-80 is direct link into the New York and Newark metropolitan areas. Lot of fast moving traffic. Not as fast as the speedway between Dallas and Fort Worth but still ........

I thought this video might help some see where this accident took place. Note the rear frame of the school bus and how it bent.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/05/nj_school_bus_accident_driver.html
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I saw that story and was going to post a thread downstairs about it. I have no idea what that bus driver was thinking. I've made some dumb mistakes on the road in my day, and I'm not familiar with that area, but I wouldn't ever attempt an illegal turn like that on any highway in a car by myself, let alone in a school bus full of children. That's a mistake that the driver is going to regret for the rest of his or her life.
 
Saw this and then a story where the trucking company was vilified. Speeding, over weight and violations that put their trucks out of service. Seems they didn't do anything wrong here but that truck driver will carry this for the rest of his life. The bus driver should be charged with vehicular homicide or whatever they call it down there.
 
I'm familiar with that area and know exactly where that happened as it was about five miles from where my businesses were located and I traveled that highway often. A hazard is there is an asphalt plant and a gravel pit on Waterloo Road with a high concentration of heavy truck traffic.
 
The fact that the box came completely off the bus chassis, and that the driver's corner separated in partial.....wow.
wow.
 
Bobw said:
Saw this and then a story where the trucking company was vilified. Speeding, over weight and violations that put their trucks out of service. Seems they didn't do anything wrong here but that truck driver will carry this for the rest of his life. The bus driver should be charged with vehicular homicide or whatever they call it down there.
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I think the bus driver died?
 
As of this mornings news print media of local papers, Sunday, May 20, the bus driver did not die and condition is not known. The name is being held under wraps for now. Gonna be hell to live with that stupid mistake for the remainder of their life.
 
I'm only a little familiar with that area of I-80 as we get on/off @ the 206 interchange going to/from Princeton, NJ. It's a pretty congested area with 3 lanes heading both east/west. It's absolutely ridiculous to use one of those turnarounds in the median let-alone in an area as busy as that. That median in one of those pics is barley wide enough to accommodate a vehicle the size of a school bus. They'll probably end up finding both operators at fault even though the bus driver was the main cause as it reads. Sad story in any case.
 
When I was a child, I think it was in middle school at the time, there was a similar accident near us. A dump truck hit a school bus killing 3 children. It turned out that one of the kids killed in the accident was the daughter of my mom’s former boss. His kids and my sister and I were close in age, I wont say we were close, but we did some things together. We went to the funeral and it was the first time I’ve been to a child’s funeral, It was very sad.

I don't know what happened to the bus driver, but if i remember correctly, she had pot or some other drugs in her system and pulled out in front of the dump truck.

The nature of this accident reminded me of that one. This one could have turned out to be way worse than it did, I’m surprised there weren’t more killed.
 
Bobw said:
Saw this and then a story where the trucking company was vilified. Speeding, over weight and violations that put their trucks out of service. Seems they didn't do anything wrong here but that truck driver will carry this for the rest of his life. The bus driver should be charged with vehicular homicide or whatever they call it down there.
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mike honcho said:
I think the bus driver died?
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Two separate accidents have occured. This thread is for dumptruck vs illegial U-turn bus. There is not a thread for drunk 18-wheeler driver versus bus that I have seen.
 
Magnethead said:
At 77 years old, I'm not sure one should still be driving a bus....
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I'm 74 and I'm damn sure that no one over 66 (full retirement age) should be driving a bus of any kind. Your reflexes, among other things like attention span etc, slow down too much. And yeah I know there are a few exceptions, race car drivers, dragster drivers etc. It's one thing to concentrate for a few seconds, dragsters, or 3 or so hours, Nascar, but a different story to do so hour after hour day after day with others lives in your hands.
 
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When I was a kid the bus drivers were men who worked for the cities/states bus companies. Professional drivers? Now 21 yo up to octogenarian's drive buses. btw Did this bus have seat belts?
 
Bobw said:
When I was a kid the bus drivers were men who worked for the cities/states bus companies. Professional drivers? Now 21 yo up to octogenarian's drive buses. btw Did this bus have seat belts?
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Anymore, there is too much of a shortage for the transportation companies to not hire anything that can walk and talk and has a CDL.

Doesn't make it right.
 
The bus did have lap type seat belts and that is what most likely reduced the injuries if the kids were wearing them. The location of where the school bus entered the interstate and the location of the emergency vehicle, paved divider access, was a short distance in which the bus driver pretty much pulled into traffic and immediately formed what was essentially a road block.
 
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