No ordinary trip to school

[merseytrains]

From a while back this one but here I go! Not rail related but certainly interesting! Well okay, the train's early departure got me in this mess!

I missed the last bus that got me to school on time so I waited for 09:05 Arriva 421 service. It came in about 5 or 10 minutes late, but when it did turn up, everyone (4 or 5 people) got on. The bus dropped off 3 and picked up 1 in the Newton area, with just three of us young'uns on the bus. The bus now headed out towards Frankby which is where the route starts to get rural before Greasby. Anyway, the bus runs along a busy main raod before going round a rather tight, blind corner into Frankby Village. Then all of a sudden, SMASH, the scoop from a JCB hits the top lefthand side of the bus, I was the only one sitting on this side! We didn't know what to do and ducked onto the floor as it happened, even the two lads behind who think they're 'hard'!

The JCB was invisible on that corner, it was sticking out of a farm entrance behind a house. The owners have since built a new entrance. Amazingly, no damage done to driver or passengers. The school minibus came and collected us after they heard what happened and we got to school about 10am (ish). Makes a change from accidents that usually occur in Southport :???:

 

[mbonwick]

Best bit of it msut have been that you didn't get told off for being late!

 

[merseytrains]

Yer lol! Mind you, put it this way, if you had been in a car crash on your way to work, would you still turn up at the office?

 

[Daniel]

I was thinking that - you shouldn't really have been sent to school...

 

[thefab444]

I would be in total shock and have to have a good lie down to calm down. A day or two would be fine.

Lucky you weren't hit though!

JS

 

[merseytrains]

When I went to school on my bike once (a journey of 5 miles), I was cycling down a country lane when one of my wheels almost came off and jammed the rear wheel in the frame of the bike, so obviously I had to make an emergency stop, right in front of a 4x4, so the school let me go home then! Thanks to the policemen who offered me a lift home!

Oh why oh why do I always almost end up being killed?

 

[mbonwick]

But the point is you aren't killed

 

[Gavelex]

Transport that I am on tends to crash too, trains, busses, cars, motorbikes,

 

[merseytrains]

Transport that I am on tends to crash too, trains, busses, cars, motorbikes,

Lol now I have someone who knows what i've been going through! With the amount of close encounters with death i've had, no wonder i'm a shivering nervous wreck

Ah well, life's life!

 

[me123]

Transport that I am on tends to crash too, trains, busses, cars, motorbikes,

And I thought being diverted 90% of the time was bad!

 

[Max]

That sounds pretty bad! Our schoolbus has crashed on the odd occasion on the way to school (never when I've been on it though!).

More often then not though it gets heavily delayed by snow

 

[RJ]

I've had some jokes journies to school. One driver going downhill saw the traffic lights turn to amber, so instead of slamming on the brakes, he floors the thing, which would have been alright had we not had a sharp 90 degree turn at the lights - cue much screaming

One time a tramp came and sat at the back of the bus and got egged, then he started crying. Another time one of my mates screwed his face at the hoodies at the bus stop and they chased the bus and got on - it was an anti-climax though. And every so often there was this woman at Crystal Palace who enjoyed punching the air and screaming to herself...

And I'll never forget the day one of the older boys got into a fight with a crew and was winning until he got stabbed in the arse.

 

[TheSlash]

Yer lol! Mind you, put it this way, if you had been in a car crash on your way to work, would you still turn up at the office?

In 2.5 years, i've twice had a near miss with a train, both occassions resulted in the driver applying the emergency brake. Neither of these occassions did i get any time off. hock:

 

[merseytrains]

Bus companies tend to put their worst drivers on schools in the hope they don't get noticed!

Another interesting 'school day'! I usually get the train for the first leg of my journey to school. But this particular day there was snow and ice everywhere, and the trains were all cancelled because of this. So it was down the road to the bus stop. Arriva were running a half hourly bus service that day, since they had their normal routes to run and some of their buses were frozen or stuck in the depot. But I missed the bus and me and a few other passengers managed to get onto an already packed school bus. Getting off at West Kirby a bit later than usual, my normal 82 bus to school didn't run on snow days, so I was in for a 50 minute wait for the Arriva 421. A large crowd was starting to build at the bus stops. The Arriva 437 was running a reduced service from 6bph to 2 or 3bph, and that runs to Liverpool so was a vital service since the trains weren't running. Some school services also failed to turn up, and most other buses were about 10-15 minutes late. Anyway, 50 minutes later, i'm cold and the 421 hasn't shown up. It came from Chester so it could've been anywhere along the route? Anyway, i decided to wait another 10 minutes, but still nothing. I couldn't call my mum because my phone had died in the sub zero temperatures. So I used my loaf and decided to head back home as there was no realistic way I was going to get to school. So over to the stop on the other side of the road. The 38 never showed, neither did the 83, but a school bus running empty back to the depot let us on free of charge instead, thanks to that driver! I got back home about 2 hours after I origionally left.

 

[Spaceflower]

Our school bus used to catch fire alot courtesy of the science department. Wasnt so bad on the way to school (get to miss first lesson) but wheres the sense doing it on the way back?

how disadvantaged us villagers are when it comes to comprehensive schools.

 

[mbonwick]

Bus companies tend to put their worst drivers on schools in the hope they don't get noticed!

I wouldn't say that; round here (S. Cumbria) several nice polite drivers I know to have a chat with, usually everytime I see them they say something about their zero enjoyment of their regular school run.

They also usually say something about such and such a driver enjoying the school run (I know who they refer to, he's a right saddist!)

 

[me123]

Bus companies tend to put their worst drivers on schools in the hope they don't get noticed!

I concur. We had this driver one day who accelerated as fast as he could (and that was pretty fast) and knocked a young kid's head off the armrest. He needed stitches. The driver still drives us occasionally.

There's this other driver who tortures us, though. If we stand up he goes ballistic, which is fair enough. But he stops the bus every five minutes to check we're wearing seatbelts, he once walked off for 10 minutes, he think's he's entitled to fag breaks in the middle of a journey...

 

[5872]

On my school bus they always like to have massive food fights:roll: . On the last day they coverd the bus (TA256 I think) In egg , flour , milk and it all stunk. The floor was wihte:neutral:.

They wont be doing it again.

 

[Tom B]

Our school bus regularly caught fire, courtesy of the leaky fuel tank patched up with high quality gaffer tape. Then there were the times it turned up late because of the driver's alarm clock being set wrong, the times the brake pipe burst, the times the driver pushed the wrong pedal and ended up in the back of the 354 Lincoln, the times the gearbox packed in and got hit by a hammer by the fitter... shall I go on?

 

[Daniel]

I've never had a schoolbus. yay!

 

[Tom]

You miss out on all the fun then memorex!

Nathan's school bus crashes into others mostly.

 

[66526]

We had one bloke who drove my schoolbus in Bristol. Right piece of work, crap driver, reckless and best part was I used ot wind him up F**ckin big style =)

 

[RJ]

We have to go to different school buildings to do some of our lessons hock:. Its a bit mad when half the 6th form try to cram onto one little bus - especially with those drivers who insist on everyone scanning their Oystercards...

 

[devon_metro]

I've been on a bus that scrapped the side of the bus on a concrete lamp post

 

[D306]

Worst thing that has happened to my bus, was that it crashed in rush hour traffic. Seem'd good untill I remembered that it was a monday morning and my first lesson wasn't untill 9:15, and the crash happened at 8:50, but got into school at 9:05. Another thing that happened to my bus, was that when it had snowed, people lobbed snowballs at the bus. May seem like a fun thing to to... No it isn't. When the driver opened the doors, people pelted the driver with Ice Balls. It was lucky that he had plexiglass to stop him from getting hit (that stuff thats on the bus drivers door, that stops him getting assulted). He even called the police, but they didn't show up, as the school was dealing with it. We wern't allowed off for at least 10 mins after we got onto the school grounds.

 

[Sir_Clagalot]

We got on one once and the driver says this is the bus that always brakes down up such and such a hill, and yup, it did!! Also got crashed into by a car, another one was the seats ending up out the emergency exit window, especially if it wasnt fitted with an alarm.. Also, pressing the bell!! (these were dedicated school busses too!) I think our route was the only one that didnt get a b*llocking for bad behaviour, despite what went on!

 

[Nick W]

I go by to school by a combination of bike and train and have achieved a 100% safety record so far although someone I know hasn't been as lucky.

 

[Tom B]

Latest we got to school was 10.30 I think - driver got up late so was replaced by another, bad traffic, then brakes failed...

Our emergency exit wouldn't shut - we had to tie it shut with seatbelts otherwise it flapped open all the time. As this set an alarm off, the alarm was illegally disabled...

 

[mbonwick]

Latest I've been ito school has been 10:45. Tanker crashed on the M6, spilling acid. Absolute Gridlock. Driver turned the engine off, and wiyh that went the heating. It was 1degree outside!

 

[Tom B]

1945 to get to school??

I got home from school at about 1830 once - bus was due to leave at 1600, but it became defective earlier in the day (1400) and there were apparently no spares (i.e. the fitter couldn't be bothered to come out with another). So the booked driver sat with it and waited for a recovery truck, in the meantime we had to wait for another bus. This was done on overtime off the back of another school run, which finished 30 miles away at about 1650... "circumstances beyond our control" was the excuse.

Unfortunately, companies don't care about school work - students on school buses are banned from complaining, and parents are fobbed off with excuses like "it's circumstances beyond our control". They said there was "nothing wrong" with a vehicle that had a fire exit which flapped open and shut whilst in motion and was tied shut with seatbelts, an air tank which needed the driver to pull over and charge it up every few miles, mouldy seats and a leaky roof.

I don't think they liked it when the Ministry turned up asking to see the vehicle in question, but still they managed to cheat their way around it via nefarious means (which can be explained by PM but not on a public forum as nobody has any evidence).