The school year has just begun and yet, I have seen several bad choices made by bus drivers I have been following. Where is the common courtesy? This puzzles me.
There have been several occasions where I have been stuck behind a school bus with at least 10 other cars. The bus pulls into a cutout right turn lane used to turn into the subdivision. The driver stops in that turn lane and is now completely off the highway with lights on sitting in the cutout lane letting off the children. I totally understand the bus driver pulling into that lane as someone may be nutty enough to try to drive around the bus on the right side if they sat on the highway.
However, now the children are safely off the bus. The driver keeps the lights flashing as they pull back onto the highway with all of us still sitting behind them. Then what happens? They stop about 200 feet ahead and do the same thing with all of us taxpayers wasting our time.
The bus is off the highway. We are all waiting on the highway. The bus no longer has the right to pull in front of all of us waiting on the highway. It would take 30 seconds to let us all by.
However, this continues stop after stop, which makes it dangerous because drivers are now honking horns and taking chances to get by this bus. This seems like common sense to me that the driver would let us all get past them and on our way.
I was shocked when I was behind a bus on the backside of Harp’s Crossing Church. A mother in a Jeep was beeping at the bus. The bus stopped in the middle of the highway with no lights on.
The mother got out of her car in the middle of the highway, went up to the driver side and talked to the driver. Then a young girl was let off the bus in the middle of the highway still with no lights on. She came around to her mother on the bus driver’s side and continued their conversation.
I beeped my horn and was given a frown and wave by the mother. Why not pull into the church parking lot? Again, where is the common courtesy? Could I have passed them? Would I have been reported?
Bus drivers, please look in your mirror, use your good judgment. If you see 10 cars behind you, take a moment to turn your lights off and let us on our way.
Kathleen Mann
Fayetteville, Ga.
