US School Buses

For sometime now Americans have had a thing about children's health and safety whilst being transported to school. Its one of America's iconic images, the big yellow school bus covered in orange flashing lights that daily pick up kids and deliver them either to school or back home.

The Americans have put into place laws surrounding the use of these vehicles for example when one stops, to pick up or drop off a kid, no vehicle on either side of the road can pass the stationary bus. Furthermore other traffic has to stop at least 20 feet from the stationary bus. To enforce this the bus has swing out barriers that swing into the road from the front and rear of the bus, each with their own set of flashing lights and a large red sign saying STOP. This is all to prevent kids being injured or worse killed whilst getting off the bus. As only Americans can the area around a stationary school bus is known as the "Death Zone" has a nice warm feeling about it doesn't it. No wonder the Americans are the worlds warrior race, twice everyday their kids step into and survive the "Death Zone".

All sounds very stringent and indeed if you fail to follow these rules you could have your driving licence suspended for 60 days, receive penalty points on your licence and receive a hefty fine. But despite this in New York alone its estimated that 50,000 motorists each year ignore the rule and drive past a stationary school bus and through the "Death Zone".

Its further estimated that every school day 22 million school children are transported to and from school in America on school buses, yet the injury count doesn't suggest there is a major problem. Some statistics suggest that over the last 20 years 1,450 people have died in school bus related accidents, 67% were in vehicles other than the schools bus and 25% were cyclists or pedestrians.

Yet despite all this perceived danger and strict laws surrounding school buses, they seem to think its okay for the buses themselves to driven by 60 year old plus drivers with no doubt failing eyesight and hearing, just because they think these people will be like the kids grandparents and represent a safe environment for them to be in. They obviously place a lot on this safe environment created by the old folks, because the kids on the bus from what I have seen don't wear seat belts.

But the show really starts when the bus arrives at the school, the approach roads to the school suddenly have a 15 mph speed restriction that covers the whole school entrance area. Flashing lights on the side of the road warn drivers to slow down and of course if one of them yellow buses stops outside the school, all traffic has to come to a complete stand still.The only thing that is moving at any speed within half a mile of a school is perhaps a jogger, everyone else is stationary or very nearly at a standstill.

So if the Americans go to this frankly over the top lengths to protect their kids on the way to and from school, why the hell is it so easy to walk into just about any school in America with combat standard firearms and kill tens of people. It seems to me that the Death Zone is inside the schools and not outside them and certainly not around a big yellow bus.

But don't think the Americans aren't doing anything to try and counter this problem. Of course to just about everyone who isn't an American the solution seems easy, ban combat style guns and tighten gun laws. But this seems to be an option to far for the land of the brave, however they quiet like the idea of arming teachers so they can if need be protect the pupils in their care. I am not sure that putting guns into the hands of more people rather than less is the answer and I am not sure how successful it will be to ask teachers to switch within a nano second, from caring, nurturing educators into fully trained tactical firearms operatives who are specialists in siege and kidnap situations.

My wife was a teacher for 25 years and she is horrified at the suggestion that she should have been firearms trained. To be honest on a list of people I would not give a gun to, she would come low down on that list someway below Atilla the Hun and that upstart who is running North Korea.

So all in all the idea of SWAT teachers is about as crazy to none Americans as banning combat guns is to the Americans, but rest assured that American health and safety rules are designed to make sure that kids get to school safely, what happens to them after that doesn't seem to be such a high priority.