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Admin
Administrator
USA
1664 Posts |
 Posted - 09/18/2001 : 6:55:57 PM
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A motorist claims that a rock thrown from a school bus has damaged his car. But the bus driver did not witness any of his passengers throwing a rock. What do you do?
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BusBoy
Top Member
USA
2042 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2001 : 03:26:59 AM
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Hopefully, your bus would have a camera on it to check and see, if the driver in the car is not for sure it could have been a rock from the bus tire. Sounds like it could be a catch 22.
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cowlitzcoach
Advanced Member
USA
325 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2001 : 05:42:55 AM
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I think this is going to be a hard one to prove or disprove. Just as it is hard to make a dump truck company pay off if something falls off of one of their trucks.
If the cost of making the person go away is not very much, it might be better for P.R. to just pay him off. I know that may not be the "right" thing to do but in the long run it may actually cost you less.
The question you have to ask yourself is how much time, money, and effort do you want to spend on doing the "right" thing.
Unlike the local gravel truck companies, P.R. for school buses can be very important. If someone says something nasty about a gravel truck company and people choose to use a different company, at least there is another company. In the school bus industry, if someone says something nasty about the school buses it will tar the schools as well. It is not as if they could choose to use a different yellow bus.
A few people upset about the school buses can make the difference between passing and not passing the next levy or bond election. Even if the school buses are not owned by the school district.
If the claim is someone on board the bus threw something out and you have video to prove it didn't happen, tell them so and tell them to go away and don't bother you with their spurious claims.
If you don't have the video, pay them off and move on.
Mark O.
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John Farr
Top Member
USA
642 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2001 : 10:42:04 AM
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This act could have had very unsafe consequences. Investigate. Isolate students by bringing them in one-by-one into the school office to speak to. Develop a seat chart for that day and have students fill it in for you.
Pay the motorist right away. People do not make these stories up.
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wagonmaster
Top Member
USA
2298 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2001 : 11:46:03 AM
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We would have our school police department investigate the alleged incident. This includes interviewing all the student passengers and the driver/attendent (if present). If it was determined that someone did throw something, they would be suspended from the bus at the least and possibly suspended from school.
Joe
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JK
Top Member
USA
7307 Posts |
Posted - 09/19/2001 : 1:10:27 PM
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quote:
A motorist claims that a rock thrown from a school bus has damaged his car. But the bus driver did not witness any of his passengers throwing a rock. What do you do?
This assumes no camera on the bus or the camera was off.
Remain parked and immediatly inform dispatch of the alleged incident. Hopefully, dispatch would call law enforcement to the bus to help determine what happened.
Another approach might be to inform the kids to close the windows and that a decision must be made to hold on to the privilege of opened windows on this bus: We could decide that the windows may not be opened more than one or two notches the remainder of the school year. -or- The student throwing the item out the window can let me know when convienient to do so. -or- If this does not happen then students witnessing the act can let me know the student's name when conveinent to do so. Until this is resolved the windows may not be opened more than one or two notches.
Another approach is for a school administrator and bus driver, the next morning and after presenting the possible consequences to the group, to then instruct the kids: Write on a piece of paper the name of the student throwing the rock out the window -or- if you don't know who did it then write the Principal's name on the paper. This way every student is expected to write something and nobody is likely to know who wrote what.
A preventative option is to only allow the windows opened 1/2 the full open position. This forces an offending student's arm above the head and can be much easier for the driver to catch in the mirror. (jk)
Edited by - jk on 09/19/2001 1:28:33 PM |
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jimbo20
Senior Member
USA
159 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2001 : 2:06:32 PM
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CALL THE POLICE, LET THE DISTRICT ATTORNEYS HANDLE IT
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How would you handle this?
