School Bus Safety Winner

Tuesday, August 24, 2010
James Smith, in black, next to fellow Teamster competitors.
James Smith, in black, next to fellow Teamster competitors.
It’s back to school time! And that’s a good time to focus on school bus safety. James Smith, a First Student driver in Fairbanks, Alaska, and member of Teamsters Local 959, recently competed in the NSTA School Bus Driver International Safety Competition. Here’s what he had to say about being a good, safe bus driver:

“I’ve been a school bus driver for eight years. I’ve also been a volunteer fire fighter/ EMT in Fairbanks for 11 years. This year, I won first place in the local school bus safety competition and second place at the state level, which qualified me to go to the international competition in St. Louis.

The two-day international competition has several categories. There’s a written, general knowledge test, a pre-trip test, and on the second day, there is an obstacle course, which tests you on reference points, mirrors and how to position the bus. You get points for each category. It really challenges your skills.

We also had a training and got to meet people from all over the place. There were more than 100 competitors from 33 states and Canada.

We had an interesting discussion about checking your bus before you go back to the barn. It is so important to do a thorough check because kids can hide in a lot of places you wouldn’t think they could.

One driver told a story about a kid that got himself in such a tight spot that they had to get the fire department to come get him out! The driver wouldn’t have known the child was hiding and stuck if he hadn’t done a complete inspection.

Safety is so important. This was my second time at this safety competition and I look forward to going back again.”