A Safe Ride On Your School Bus (1970)
Added 2021-12-01 22:32:52 +0000 UTCA classic 16mm reel that hits close to home for me. True story: in the winter of 1972 I survived a terrible school bus accident. It was in one of these very buses shown in the film, where every kid in every seat faced a solid steel bar that ran across the back of the seat in front of them, and of course no seat belts or anything like that. Well, one afternoon the school got dismissed early due to a blizzard, and on the ride home the bus collided head on with a PA State snowplow, which was basically a Mac dump truck loaded with salt with a 6' high steel plow mounted on the front, and through the collision the bus went airborne, rolled over, and landed on its side down an embankment in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the blizzard. Exiting the bus were stunned kids with missing rows of teeth, broken noses, busted arms, and all the like. As with every other crash I have been in (always as a passenger) I was completely unharmed due to my lightning fast natural reflexes, but the fact remains - those buses were never safe. They depended on the fallacy that no one would ever dare hit a school bus, and that no school bus would ever crash into anything. Well, they did. A lot. And that's what happened to me! Enjoy!!!
Comments
What was with the 4 foot diameter steering wheel on this thing? No power steering? Apparently, only white kids ride the bus. And, like you said Fran, I remember those seat belt-free hollow cans with the metal bars on top of the seats. They should have issued every kid a crash helmet and football uniform. Thank God for the invention of the tazer! When little Jimmy assaults another kid on the bus, a quick zap of the tazer will have him convulsing on the floor and the other kids will get in line right quick! I had to use public transportation to get to school, so no busses were really necessary. The CTA gave students who held a pass a big discount. Between trains and busses, transport to school was easy. And none of the busses or trains had any seat belts or "soft" things to ram your head into either, but the busses were truly heavier, and safer, than a light school bus. I remember 20 years ago or so when the rear of a school bus was hit by a commuter train and it tossed the passenger "box" right off the frame of the bus. A horrible site to see, but those school busses were so flimsy. It renewed interest in all aspects of school busses, seat belts, drivers that don't realize the back of the bus is on railroad tracks, etc. But I don't think anything was ever done in the end. They're the same as they were then. Am I wrong? Did they actually do some safety redesigning in the past 40 years? Can someone tell me what they're like today?
Matt Wietlispach
2021-12-02 02:11:19 +0000 UTC
