What are we coming to as a society

Rich Soby

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Cape Cod, Ma.
I ask this because of what was conveyed to us (myself and fellow employees) at this mornings safety meeting.
A gentleman from the local FD gave us a talk on first aid and what to do should we get in an accident or have a medical emergency on our bus.

The number one issue, the very first thing he said was. "who is liable"
Who is liable if a child is injured and the driver has to administer first aid?
First and foremost, how to cover our tail feathers in the event of an emergency.
And then proceeded to give us the steps we have to follow so that, even though we will be held liable, our risk is minimized because we will be adminstering treatment under the guidance of the FD.

Personally, I am thoroughly disgusted and put off by this.
The reason I would dial 911 is to get assistance and guidance to help me treat and protect that child and all the other children on the bus. That and only that should be the first and foremost paramount reason, not, "Im calling you so I dont get sued for trying to keep little billy from leaking out all over my floor..."

Where are we going as a society if we have to worry about that over the well being of a child or any other individual for that matter.

Sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest.....
 
and you thought bus driving was gonna be fun and enjoyable and safe as long as you were behind the wheel.. there are many out there rich that the first thing they think of is who to sue for what..
 
The problem is that future actions are not under your control - they are under the control of the person (or family) of the person treated and you don't know, in advance, what they are going to do. It's only prudent to know how to protect yourself, as best you can, against financial risk.

And before you say that there should be a law that prevents someone from suing, there have been a significant number of cases where an untrained first responder caused permanent injury, including paralysis or death, because they didn't know what they were doing. Good intentions are cold comfort to the person or family injured.

So we have courts to decide whether what the person who responded did was reasonable or not. The courts usually give lots of leeway to the responder, however.

Mike
 
I know exactly what you mean. I was a floor warden at my last job and they brought in instructors to train us to use CRP and an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). On of the first things he covers is liability and how good samaritan laws protect first aid providers. He went over this because there is that hesitation to provide aid because of how prone to lawsuits we have become. It's sad.
 
Don't get me wrong here, I never had any delusions that it would be all roses. I gave this career path a lot of heavy thought before I took the position. A schoolbus driver takes on one heckuva responsiblity and I take it extremely seriously. Maybe that's why I am being so sensitive to the fact that liabilty seems to be being placed before the well being of the child.
I also see and understand where you are coming from as well Mike. I have come accross the scene of a few accidents in my time and seen what good intentions could potentialy cause. the big one is trying to move someone.

My point is that although we have to be aware of the liability issue I certainly dont want it at the forefront of my decision making when I am on the line with 911 and they are asking me questions so they know how to tell me to respond since I would be the only one on the scene until they get there.

And I know about the snakes that lurk around these things. Back in my twenties I was in an accident, I was fine but the ambulance came and police and other rescue were there. All were the consumate professionals they should have been.

The next day I get a knock on my front door. Here is an attorney with his card in my face asking me if I would like to go after the emt's that treated me. I ran him off my property. I think it took me a week to scrub the stink and slime of his presence off my front steps.....

It's pretty sad that litigation has become our biggest GDP or at least seems so....
 
My grand daughter who lives with me is 5 years old and just started kindergarten this month. She has never been on a school bus before.

We live way out of town, the town is quite rural, I don't have many neighbors, so I walk up to the bus stop to meet her when she comes home in the afternoon. I drive her to school in the morning.

First day of school I'm waiting at the bus stop. It comes 20 minutes late. No grand daughter on the bus. Bus driver has no clue as to where she is and told me to go home and call the school. No way. I made this idiot call his bus company and the school right on the spot. Come to find out she was put on the wrong bus, was delivered back to the school. They tried to call me but of course I was at the bus stop waiting for her and not home.

I expressed my feelings while keeping my anger in check to both the school and bus company. They assured me that it was due to first day of school confusion and that it couldn't happen again.

Three successful bus trips later same thing. No grand daughter on the bus. This time a teacher put her on her friends bus. Thank goodness her friends Mom had the sense to take my grand daughter home and call the school who in turn contacted my daughter at work and she called me to pick Abby up.

I can't imagine what would of happened if Abby's friends mom wasn't concerned enough over this little girl showing up at her son's bus stop to take action and call the school. I can't even think about Abby wandering around all alone in an unfamiliar part of town without getting royally upset. Lord knows what could of happened. I'm boiling mad right now just thinking about it.

This time I called the school superintendent, principal of the school and the manager of the bus company. I told them that they were basically a bunch of incompetent morons and that I was calling the police and the State House to report their unsafe practices. If it happened again I was calling my Lawyer and filing suit.

Last 2 days. Abby is on the bus and sitting in the first seat. Sitting is not correct. She is laying half off the seat sound asleep. I ask the bus driver what would happen to her if he stops short and she goes flying down the steps. He says that he is not allowed to touch the children for any reason whatsoever and he can't even raise his voice to them. I mention very friendly like that if my grand daughter gets hurt on the bus because of his inaction to a dangerous situation that he better hope that he has good health coverage on himself. Somehow he took that as a threat and is not too happy with me.

What is this crazy world coming to :dunno:
 
yeah, not allowed to touch a child under any circumstances with the exception to adminster first aid or in self defense. If there is a fist fight on the bus I can't break it up I have to call dispatch and they notify the school and the police.
Can't even give a "high-five"

this is as you may know my first year as a bus driver. the schools in the town I am driving for start the kindergarteners a week after the rest. They had a day of orientation then they went on the bus. they are seated by grade k, 1,2,3,4 with the kindergarteners in the first row(s). the first day I kept them on the bus until all the other students got off then the teachers gave each kindergartener a tag that they wear around their neck with their name and the bus number on it. They are walked to the bus by the teachers and met at the bus in the mornings by the teachers. Parents are to meet the children at the bus stop. No parent, no delivery the child is brought back to the school. We also get a list of the k students and their stops, as well as if they are am, pm or full day. That first list is almost as good as a kleenex. I have kids that are listed on my bus that moved so they are going on another bus, 2 stops where there have been no one anytime, a stop that isnt even listed. They are supposed to get us the updated list asap meanwhile we are left guessing.
I completely understand your frustration Bob, It's pretty stressful from this side as well. Trying to keep track of almost 70 kids on a bus and know where each one is supposed to get off in only a week.... keeps me awake nights hoping I don't screw up.
We as bus drivers go through considerable training, and continued training after we are on the road. There is great effort put into getting everything right and still... as you have realized first hand things go wrong.
I had two kids yesterday that werent paying attention. (older kids mind you)
Here I am thinking everyone got off at that stop and then seeing the look on the mother's face of the kid that didn't get off. Talk about heart stopping. then I look up and his buddy is cuffing him to wake up as he is at his stop.
The other one had spilled his back pack when he got up to go and was bent down behind the seat where I couldnt see him.
had me questioning myself whether he got off at the wrong stop, do I remember him getting on at the school when the whole gang of them got on almost at once?
That's not to say that there aren't drivers out there that are completely oblivious to what is going on around them either.....
And the side you are seeing certainly isn't doing much for confidence building....
 
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