Your source for news in Hot Springs County

A tip of the hat to school bus drivers

by David Peck, Lovell Chronicle

This is the time of year when we doff our hats to the folks who take our school kids from event to event: our bus drivers.

Hollywood has made fun of bus drivers as hapless victims of rowdy school kids hell bent on raising as much havoc as possible during a simple ride to school, and indeed, some routes surely do enjoy their share of hijinks.

But Hollywood aside, where drivers really shine is on long road trips for sporting events and a variety of other activities. Games and music, ag or academic events are on a fixed schedule, mostly, and thus every effort is made to get the students to the site, lest everything be rescheduled or cancelled. And activity bus drivers – and route drivers, as well – are worth their weight in gold as they ply the sometimes snowy and oftentimes icy highways across Wyoming.

Many events are held in far-away places like Cheyenne or, at best, Casper, and the routes to these places seem to suffer from some of the worst conditions, mainly caused by the wind that comes with many storms – and persists seemingly day after day. The old name for Interstate 80 across southern Wyoming is the “Snow Chi Minh” Trail after the Ho Chi Minh supply route used during the Vietnam War.

Just this week, as a frigid winter storm hit the region, buses were taking students to the Wyoming State Spirit Competition in Casper, the all-school Ron Thon Memorial wrestling tournament in Riverton and numerous basketball games across the state. When State Spirit in Casper had to be postponed Friday, many teams delivered by intrepid bus drivers were already there and had to turn around and come home.

Most of the teams, at least 42, by our count, made it to the huge Ron Thon tournament Friday, returning home Saturday evening, but some 30 scheduled basketball dates (with multiple games) were postponed or cancelled last weekend, most of them on Saturday.

Locally, it made sense for Rocky Mountain and Big Horn to cancel Saturday’s non-conference basketball game in Big Horn, which would have required Rocky to top the mountain in questionable conditions and/or wait for highways to open.

But Lovell fans are scratching their heads about the postponement of the January 28 Lovell-Thermopolis basketball games when Thermop declined to make the trip through the Basin – no mountain passes or canyons to traverse. And the decision was made Friday morning, about 24 hours before the buses would travel. It seems transportation policy differs from district to district, with some being more cautious than others.

On the other hand, think of the 44-car pileup on I-80 that happened Saturday in Carbon County. The interstate was closed in both directions. We’re certainly glad we don’t live along the Snow Chi Minh Trail.

Taking students to events in oftentimes unpredictable Wyoming weather requires planning, study, communication and sometimes a bit of courage, but for all districts, safety is primary. We appreciate the drivers of the big, yellow buses who keep our kids safe week after week, the transportation directors who make the tough decisions and the maintenance crew members who make sure the buses work well and can operate in sometimes frigid temperatures.

The next time you pass a school bus on the highway, give the driver a salute. We appreciate them.

 

Reader Comments(0)