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School Bus Wreck - Fate Fairies - book version
This entry was posted on 11/21/2011 1:45 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies:Fate Fairies - book version.
I have been known to mention to past experiences, stories, and ongoing projects of mine more than once; I readily admit it - it is after all part of my shtick. It is easy for me. My Scotch and Irish families told stories over and over. I don't even try very hard to resisted the temptation to repeat a story. To add insult to injury, the following date with fate was indeed a significant event in my life, not just a quirky passing event or funny encounter. It actually earns a revisit here.
It was the fall of 1978 and I was driving school bus. Poetically, it was the same route I rode as a student.
In the fall of the year, as the corn reaches ten feet high, intersections become dangerous. One morning, early in the route, I only had ten kids on the bus at that point. I came around a corner of one of the ubiquitous narrow Lima Township roads and headed up one such road with a subtle upward grade. The precipice of the Wisconsin glaciated region just north of the great Illinois prairie is replete with such slopes. I remember as a kid riding my bicycle down this very same long stretch and never peddling for several minutes.
The big bus had made it up the slop a quarter mile or so and was picking up speed. Then, a kid in the front set said rather calmly, "that guy ain't going to stop."
Boom! It was that creepy sound you hear when waiting at an intersection or walking along a sidewalk. And, you say to yourself, "Oh, Oh, somebody just got nailed." It was that distinctive sound of metal hitting metal at a generous speed.
The farm and homestead driveways in the marsh and hill laden glaciated areas of Lima Center, Wisconsin, are often a mile long. A man in a pickup truck rammed the side of the bus at full speed out of his particular homestead. It was a classic T-bone. He probably could not see the bus for the corn. Yet, he was obligated to stop at the end of his drive way. Some of the long driveways even have name signs and stop signs.
Although the bus was a big snub-nose, it was thrown in the opposite ditch where it ran over some small trees as glass and metal flew all around me. Like a city bus, the windshield was the front of the bus. The branches and limbs smashed the front window. Later I was amazed the bus had not rolled over.
At this point I should point out I did have the seat beat on. Even back then school bus drivers were grilled on using them. In those days it was just a lap belt. Shoulder straps were still on the drawing board even in new vehicles in those days. But, I had gotten regimented to using that lap belt. Ironically, I only used it because the old bus had a pesky seat and I found myself continually slipping forward. The damn belt held me against the seat back. Safety was the last thing on my mind.
When we came to a stop, back up on the road as if we never had left it. The belt had done its job. I sat amongst the wreckage in the front of the bus like one lamp left sitting on a night stand after the house was swept away in a tornado.
We could not get out because the door side was completely caved in. I was dazed but I did a quick assessment of my kids. They had been jostled about, as kids will be, they seemed none the worse for wear. We all climbed out the back door like we had been trained to do. Actually, myself being groggy, I am thinking a couple of the older kids literally pulled me out the back door.
The man in the now crushed truck at the end of his drive way, looked..., well. he looked dead. His old pickup truck looked like an accordion with a set of tires sticking out in the back.
With 35 years of retrospect to my advantage, there are a few things that now seem surrealistic about the event.
I needed to radio in - no cell phones in the Seventies. As my head cleared I realized I had to crawl back in the bus to activate the two-way radio. My bus had been totaled but the radio still worked.
A Sheriff's Deputy finally came - one lone rescuer - it took him about 25 minutes to get out to our part of the boonies - and he did tend to the other driver. But for the most part, I think the deputy focused on writing the guy a ticket while the wrecker and fire truck and rescue squad was finally put en-route. That was an indication to me the other diver was..., not dead.
Another bus came and took the kids on to school. I went home. The impact was so significant, the next day I had to have my wisdom teeth pulled.
Yes, I said, another bus came and took the ten kids on to school!
Can you imagine the gnashing of teeth if an accident like that would happen today in this politically correct, law suit ridden, over-protective, nanny-state culture?
Having spent ten years working in the medical world in the 1990s, and early 2000s I am guessing that nowadays there would be a half dozen ambulances summoned to the scene - I worked on a rural ambulance for most of those 10 years of my journey into the medical culture. All the kids on my bus would be sent to the hospital whether they were hurt or not. A helicopter for the pickup truck driver would be in-route from the moment of my radio call. Cops, firefighters, and EMTs would have the road shut down for hours. Lawyers would have every kid on speed dial by day's end.
Coping counselors would be summoned and marshalled to guide the students through their "traumatic experience."
And I, well I probably would be plopped in the hospital for a week - tested for drugs, medications, alcohol..., and signs of Army post traumatic stress syndrome.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" - book version Category is a work in progress. The original vignettes are being edited for book form. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology of the book vignettes (chapters).
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