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It is bad enough that Escambia County has one of the lowest-quality school districts in Florida. Our school bus drivers are not very good either. This afternoon, the wife and I were traveling south on Patricia Drive, in route to the NEX complex at Corry Station, when a school bus turned north on Patricia and was splitting the yellow line down the middle as it hurtled up the road to go pick up its students (likely at Bellview Middle/Elementary). I thought we were going to have to pull off the road to avoid the bus, when it finally pulled into its lane, allowing us to pass safely without interference. As it passed us, we noticed the lady driving it was busy yakking on her cell phone.
I wondered aloud why school bus drivers were allowed to talk on cell phones while driving their busses. We got home in the early evening, and after dinner, I did some Googling and found the email address for the head of the ECSD Transportation Department. I sent Mr. Doss an email and reported what I considered to be careless driving on his bus driver's part. I could not give him a bus number, however.
About an hour later, I logged into my email address, and surprisingly found a personal reply from Mr. Doss. He told me his drivers are prohibited from talking on cell phones while driving their busses. He said they would use GPS tracks and on-board camera footage to find out who the offending driver was, since I could not give him the bus number. He cc'd three of his subordinates on his reply to me, so this seemed to be an important issue to him.
So, I guess it behooves ECSD bus drivers to drive safely and within the constraints of internal regulations and the law, or they could get busted.
I wondered aloud why school bus drivers were allowed to talk on cell phones while driving their busses. We got home in the early evening, and after dinner, I did some Googling and found the email address for the head of the ECSD Transportation Department. I sent Mr. Doss an email and reported what I considered to be careless driving on his bus driver's part. I could not give him a bus number, however.
About an hour later, I logged into my email address, and surprisingly found a personal reply from Mr. Doss. He told me his drivers are prohibited from talking on cell phones while driving their busses. He said they would use GPS tracks and on-board camera footage to find out who the offending driver was, since I could not give him the bus number. He cc'd three of his subordinates on his reply to me, so this seemed to be an important issue to him.
So, I guess it behooves ECSD bus drivers to drive safely and within the constraints of internal regulations and the law, or they could get busted.
