Terrible Evening

[Beau]

Sorry,

My husbands away and I've had one of those evenings and need to have a moan. My 13yr old son gets a school bus everyday and the driver has been awful. We have reported several incidents to both the school and transport department and they are 'carying out investigations' which has so far taken 6 weeks. Tonight my son came home from school and told me this:-

 

He catches the bus with my neighbours two children and tonight when they were getting off the bus his friend had dropped his trainer out of his bag and stopped to look for it under a seat. Ben and the boys sister got off the bus and the driver started to drive away. The girl stood in front of the bus and the driver braked at the last minute as she jumped out of the way. Then my son stood in front of the bus and the driver drove straight at him. He jumped out of the way at the last minute and the bus clipped him on the shoulder. The driver eventually stopped a couple of 100 yards up the road to let the other boy off the bus. Needless to say I was livid and have spent the whole evening contacting the transport dept., school, my local councillor and the police. The police arrived just after 9 to take a statement from my son as we want to press charges.

 

Why do these things always happen when my husbands away!!

[Steve]

Sounds like you're doing fine by yourself Carol.

 

Hope your son and friends feel good about themselves too. What amazing character they all showed! Not that we'd recommend standing in front of moving buses with (apparently psychopathic) drivers, but great comradeship nonetheless!

 

Well done all of you

[Susan]

Oh Carol, not surprised you need to let of steam!

Hope your husband returns soon and everyone is not too traumatised this morning.

What a dreadful experience for your son and his friends.

Who's driving the bus today?

 

Susan

[Beau]

Sorry about that - have calmed down a bit this morning!! As soon as the children got home and told me what had happened I was on the phone to the transport dept. The guy I spoke to said there was nothing he could do as it was already 10 to 5 and everyone was packing up to go home. I was livid and replied in the strongest of terms . 5 minutes later he rang back to say he had spoken with his line manager and the bus driver had been suspended until their investigations were completed.

 

When we had spoken to them previously about the bus driver we had warned them we would involve the police if anything happened to Ben. There have been a number of worrying incidents but all involving other peoples children, although we had told them we were worried about our son's safety as the driver was obviously not emotionally stable. I was shaking like a leaf when I phoned the police. Everything is centralised now so you no longer ring your local station but go through to a call centre. Then the funniest thing happened - the policeman asked me my name and then said 'Hello Carol its Dave your neighbour'!! We live down a little lane in the middle of nowhere with only 6 houses and Dave lives next door to us. The relief I felt at talking to someone I actually knew was immense.

 

Hubby won't be back till tomorrow night although he's not out of the country so I am able to keep in touch with him. It's just that I tend not to make much sense when I'm in full flow whereas my hubby can keep calm and rational!

[Sue R]

Hi Carol,

 

What an awful experience! Youngsters are so much at the mercy of peole like school bus drivers, you should be really pleased at how well they acquitted themselves1 However, it does beg the question as to whether there are any checks on the stability of these people. Let's face it, someone with those tendencies is a danger to ANYONE!!

 

Well done, you, too. I'm just the same, have to struggle to stay calm and rational in those sort of circs.

 

Good luck!

 

Sue

[Guest]

Hi Carol,

just wanted to send you my good wishes. Glad to hear the driver has been suspended - let's hope they assign someone more responsible to driving the children to school in the light of what's happened. Hope Ben is ok. Try not to get too stressed - look forward to your husband coming home tomorrow and try to have an enjoyable bank holiday.

 

Keep your chin up chuck

 

Take care

Tracy

[Beau]

Thanks all for your kind words of support. I had it confirmed by both the transport dept and the school that the driver is suspended. The policeman last night said they should be able to charge him with reckless driving at least. I can't imagine that the bus company will have any choice but to sack him.

 

I think the big shame in it all is that all these kids on the bus have been complaining for months about this driver but I'm not sure that they've been believed by many adults. My son is very responsible and has never been in any bother both in and out of school. He's certainly not the sort of boy to make things up or exagerate - he knows how serious the matter is. It's been a really frustrating time trying to get anything done as we could clearly see that the driver was stepping further and further out of line as time went on. We were worried about where it would eventually end - were they all going to wait until a child was seriously hurt before acting? Luckily Ben was not hurt but could easily have been. I'm not meaning to be melodramatic but where there are children involved I don't believe you can take chances. And what sort of message does it give the children when they see an adult in a position of responsibility getting away with appalling behaviour on a regular basis?

 

That's me off my soapbox now!!

[Sue R]

Carol,

 

You can get up on that soapbox any time, for me!!

 

Glad something has been done so promptly for you. Just shows we should really take young people more seriously!

 

Sue

[Susan]

Hi Carol, what a shame no one listened to you before this.

Glad everything seems to be working out.

I know exactly what you mean I always get very emotional where my children are concerned and I'm certainly not the little shy retiring mouse I would once have been.

Well done

[Guest]

Carol

Thank God things are sorted now - its definitely a miracle that noone got hurt and I feel sure the fact that you got through to the call centre only to find it was your neighbout was surely Divine Intervention!!!

LJW

[Guest]

Hi carol. Its interesting you have brought this matter up. My cleaner was telling me a couple of weeks ago that her daughter had been to court against a bus driver. Basically what happened was that her daughter got on the bus, paid her money and had to stand because there were no seats. The driver told her to move down and she said that she couldnt as the standing part of the bus was full. He asked again, and she repeated that she couldnt, to which he called her a F*&^%$£ B(*&^%$, hit her, and threw her off the bus.

 

Luckily the bus was still at the bus stop, so a parent witnessed all of this. They went to the police, and it all went to court, and would have had a hearing as the driver pleaded not guilty. However at the last moment he changed his plea, and was sacked, and a small amount of damages was awarded.

 

Although my cleaners daughter is about 16, it is a scary expereince for any kid, as they are led to believe that they will be safe on a school bus.

[Beau]

I know we can't protect our kids from every lunatic who may be out in the world but yes, I do expect that they should at least be safe travelling to and fro school. All drivers are police checked but maybe this guy had never driven a school bus run before. Teenagers can be intensely annoying, but as adults we need to recognise when we're being pushed to our limits and then remove ourselves from the situation before it gets out of hand.