How School Buses Became the Safest Vehicles in America

Thanks for watching, sorry again about the visual glitches I'm working on upgrading my computer. Real quick a couple of things I need to add:
Transit or cab-over style school buses existed and were used prior to the 80s but this decade is when they really took off in popularity, hence why I waited until that point in the video to mention them.
Also I simplified the demise of a few companies, in reality things were much more complicated as liquidations, acquisitions, and mergers occurred bringing some of these companies back to life.
There are actually 6-8 states which have seat belt laws, for some reason sources aren't exactly 100% on this, I'm assuming due to changing laws.

Intro (00:00)
19th Century - 1910 (00:50)
1910s & 20s (01:44)
30s (02:48)
40s & 50s (04:07)
60s (04:53)
70s (05:17)
80s (06:20)
90s (07:49)
2000s & 2010s (08:36)
Present (09:28)
Outro (10:57)
Italian Time (11:41)

Sources:

Music:

Italian Music:

[bennnymiddleton]

I remember Mike the school buss driver who was cool as heck everyone liked him and he would intentionally hit this one bump in a col de sac and make the buss rock, we called it “Roller coaster” and would chant it down the road leading to it. And sometimes we’d chant “do it again” and some times he’d do it. Cool guy

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Let's not forget the importance of the black lines on the side of the school bus. The one below the window is the height of the seat, where the one below that, is the floor level. They come in handy for first responders if there's ever a serious crash. Great history lesson

[MimicGriphon]

As a school bus driver myself, you get to see a whole different side of the transportation, and education industries. You also get to see how the rest of your city lives, how their home lives are, and so on.

Also, as a gamer, I was happy when fortnite became popular because all the kids, sincerely or not, started thanking us and it felt nice.

[sajoj]

As a school bus driver named not named Mike, reading all these recounts of your childhoods really touched me. Seriously.

When I was getting training before I had my first route, one of the instructors told me that I am the first authority figure the child would see that is connected to school and that school has a reputation of sucking. They told me that to make that first impression of the day for the kids so at least their day would suck a little less... I guess the silly conversations, the bumpy rides, and general controlled shenanigans will give my kids great memories. I'm glad to be a part of that cycle.

[CarsonG]

Joe was my favorite bus driver. Being the last kid on his route, we'd usually talk for the last bit of the trip. He was a very cool dude, and we would always get him a gift for the holidays as a thank you. If you ever end up seeing this, Joe, thanks for making my school commute great :)

[MrSaemichlaus]

For some of the rougher areas, the rear emergency door can be replaced with a tail gunner seat, both helping with children's life expectancy and further combating unemployment amongst former federal convicts.

[reedr]

Our school bus driver was an old hippie. School was almost out for the year and one day the teens at the back weren't staying seated as they were told. The driver floored it over a couple speed bumps and the kids in the back got launched into the roof. They remained seated after that.

[busterscrugs]

I was lucky enough to have cool bus drivers growing up. First one was this chill lady named Ms. Duff. She explained how different parts of the bus worked in a humorous way, and I was always interested in how the bus worked after that. One time her normal bus broke down so she pulled up in an old stick-shift bus lol. Hope she's doing well.

[no-uh]

Shoutout to my bus driver Mr.Joshua. He literally made my day every single day, just the talks and conversations he’d have with the people up front and the kids on his bus told me that he really cared about the young people he was transporting. It was more than just a job for him, he once said that bus driving was a dream career for him and that he wouldn’t give it up for anything else. Really cool guy, he had all of our birthdays in his calendar and gave us whatever snack we wanted on that day, he once gave a friend of mine a watermelon because that’s the snack he wanted haha. If someone ever had a dream to be famous at something, he’d have them give him an autograph to say “now I have the first autograph of ____ I’ll be a millionaire one day!” he really believed in our dreams and cared about each and every one of us.

[ClementinesmWTF]

My bus driver was Ms Judy. She was a character and a half and knew all of her kids so well. She was our mother before and after school. She knew how to keep things safe and knew when to bring any of forwards if she noticed something was off. Best of all, she knew all our schedules, both in and out of school. She would always ask who was or wasn’t on the bus and if we wanted to be dropped off somewhere (with our parents’ permission of course). I and my cul-de-sac/back road friends were always the last stop in the morning (yessss), and the last stop in the afternoon (ughhh), so we’d always get special time with her to talk and she’d go out of her way to make sure each of us got dropped off at our front doors when she could’ve easily dropped us off at the designated stop a half block away. Ms Judy—I hope you’re still around and enjoying retirement, you made all of us so happy to ride the bus to and from school every day, even if you were a strict and scolding bitch sometimes; I know it was your love and protection for us that had you that way ❤️

[brytur]

I remember in the late 90's / early 00's when _air conditioning_ started to become a thing in school buses. Being in the Phoenix AZ area, this was _GLORIOUS_ during the summer.

[poorlittlebiker]

I use to drive school buses, the only thing keeping me back from going is the pay, or lack of it rather lol. It’s definitely an underrated job given the level of safety that’s involved.

[wirenutt]

Lose the stereotype of the school bus driver as being some loser who failed at school or quit school. I drive a school bus at age 65 because I like it, I live a block from the school, and it's a good retirement job. I am a retired electrical engineer, and I have more education than some of the teachers. The job is a huge responsibility, you have to have a CDL, and are subject to continuous training. As an example, there are something like 18 individual steps to remember to do in sequence when crossing railroad tracks. If you aren't a bus driver, you have no idea what it entails, in general. Stupid, incompetent people and people with poor judgment are not up to the task.

[gordonreeder]

Thanks for this. And the shout out to the school bus drivers. Most people don't realize that we are hold a CDL (with passenger and school bus endorsements). Also, we spend about 30 minutes each day doing the safety inspection of the bus. The kids can be the best or worst part of our job. Parents: help make your kids the best part of our job.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Something else worthy to mention: Here in Suffolk County on Long Island, we have school bus camera program (resulting from a law passed by the state in 2019 that allowed local governments to do so). Cameras have been installed on over 4, 000 buses to keep tabs on passing cars. If the car doesn't stop for the school bus when its red lights and stop sign are deployed, you get a ticket. They collected 12 million dollars in fines (fine is $250) from motorists in an eight-month span in 2021, ten percent of which went towards public safety. The remaining 90 percent was split between the county and BusPatrol who operates the program.

[namenamename]

"A testament to just how little we trust our children with an ounce of independence"
This is an issue in the US that I feel like not enough people talk about, so I appreciate the mention of it right at the start.

[nightmarecorporation]

When school buses are safer than the school itself

[ckarts]

I love videos like this that just explain stuff. No sponsor, no breaks, no in-your-face ads. Best kind of video

[Ziffelzoovop]

George was my school bus driver from preschool to graduation. Dude was the best! He greeted every student that got on the bus by name, he let kids be kids and didn't yell if we got a bit loud, but he would step in if a kid was being picked on. He knew everyone's birthday and would let them pick out a lollipop pop on their birthday, he knew all of the streets so well that he could get around any road blockage without much delay, and he played the classic rock station on the radio that a lot more of us kids actually enjoyed. He was a solid dude, kinda like everyone's favorite fun uncle.

[cats]

My boy scout troop had an old '80s Chevy chassis Blue Bird bus that we would use to go to camp outs. The troop had modified it to have two extra large drop down monitors mounted to the ceiling over the aisle so a DVD movie could be played during the drive. The bus was painted white and lettered up to have our BSA troop number and accompanying school/church on it. They never bothered to put new tires on it though. Found that out the hard way. I was sitting over the dual rear tires with my back to the wall and the window down when a tire blew going about 60 mph down Interstate 10 between San Antonio and Houston. Damn thing was gutless and struggled to get up to highway speeds. I was sitting right over it and it sounded like someone fired a 12 gauge shotgun next to my head. Guy at the tire shop said the date code on the tire said it was from the mid '90s (about 20 year old tires at the time).