Bus accidents/delays and parent notifications

[Anonymous]

Middle schooler came home yesterday talking about one bus that was in an accident and another that was broke

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle schooler came home yesterday talking about one bus that was in an accident and another that was broke

Great post, did you mean to finish it?

[Anonymous]

Oops. Ipad typing error. One bus in accident and another that broke down with kids for several hours. I saw and heard no notifications from school.

Anyone else surprised at lack of notifications? How many MCPS buses had these issues in the snowstorm?

[Anonymous]

Was your kid on one of these busses? If not it has nothing to do with you.

[Anonymous]

Typically would agree, but when conversation among kids involves "tragedy", multiple bus shuttle issues (magnet buses) and that there were "the most bus accidents/breakdowns in the county, like, ever." I'd like to hear some kind of message from school. A heads up would have been helpful.

Will affect how I potentially transport kids in future storms.

[Anonymous]

Red Alert - Danger....

Helicopter mommy not happy.

Repeat: Helicopter mommy hot happy.

[Anonymous]

I believe the tragedy was a Howard County school bus hitting an elderly man in silver spring. I don't think MCPS is required to inform you of events that don't involve their busses. Were there in fact many accidents or was that just the rumor the kids were passing around. I didn't hear of any accidents at my DCs school.

[Anonymous]

I think that if my middle-schooler came home saying, that there were "the most bus accidents/breakdowns in the county, like, ever", I would say, "Hmmm. How do you know that?" I wouldn't say, "MCPS should have told me!"

And yes, a Howard County school bus hit and killed a pedestrian who was crossing Columbia Pike at Tech Road on Wednesday. Why should MCPS inform you about that? Why should MCPS inform you about it even if it had been an MCPS school bus?

[Anonymous]

OP, My Prince George's County student was on a bus that had a fender bender accident and I was called to be informed before he even got home from school.

I would not expect to be notified of accidents that happened on other buses. That is what the news is for!

[Anonymous]

The news only reported the bus crashes above. There were more. One I heard about involved a TPMS shuttle that goes between Eastern and TPMS.

[Anonymous]

You can believe 25% of what a middle schooler tells you.

You can believe 50% of what a high school age student tells you.

[Anonymous]

OP - why do you need to be informed by one county (MCPS) of another county's bus accidents in real time? How would they go about coordinating that? And why would they? Geographically different and that is why counties make their own decisions about closings and delays. You're not making any sense.

[Anonymous]

OP here.
Convo went something like this:

Kid: "Did you hear about the TRAGEDY today?"

What happened?

"Well, x person was on the first shuttle, which arrived 3 mins before the bell. X friend was on a the shuttle that was hit from behind and then hit a car that hit a tree. That bus was 1 1/2 hours late. And then there was the shuttle that got stuck and was 3 hours late." X was lucky he was on the first shuttle. It was the most bus accidents in a single day ever!"

"Really. How do you know that? And was anyone hurt?"

"No idea. That's what everyone's saying" -- so yes, take that with a grain of salt. And a little knowledge about the topic ahead of time would be useful so as to ratchet down the "tragedy, etc., etc." hyperbole of 12-year-olds.

And PP, I'm only asking about MCPS, not Howard.