Snow leads to TD bus mishap

“The bus that slid had completed the elementary route with no incident and had just come from the middle school.

“As the driver turned into the driveway a car cut the bus off. Went right in front of it. The driver hit the brakes to avoid the car and then the bus wheels locked up and the bus slid slowly into the fence,” she said.

The impact damaged the fence, cracked the windshield and messed up the side mirrors of the bus.

“All buses have drop chains, which are good for up to six inches of snow. This bus had drop chains, but was not chained up. It had an elementary route that was all flat. All buses that had routes with any elevation were chained up,” Armstrong said.

Jackie Deckard, whose 11-year-old son was on the bus in the third row, took to Facebook to ask if the incident had actually happened. People responded in the affirmative, posting photos of the bus against the fence, and of cars and people milling around.

Deckard told the Chronicle via message, “My dad is a retired school superintendent and I have a lot of sympathy for the people having to make the call on whether or not to call school. But afternoon buses were my biggest worry.”

“This is actually ‘best case scenario’ for what could have happened today,” Deckard said. “I don’t blame Armstrong at all for not calling school. She was damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I think she should have called early release for this very reason. We got off really lucky that it was basically nothing more than a fender bender. I do not blame the bus driver.”

Her son told her two vehicles were in the bus’s way, so the driver braked. After it hit the fence, damaging a gate, the driver “immediately turned around to make sure students were ok. Two men ran over and got on the bus to make sure everybody was ok and help students off the bus.”

“My son was pretty freaked out by the whole thing,” Deckard said. His arm hurt from where he hit the seat in front of him, “but his babysitter put him in a hot bath and he says it’s better, so I’m not worried, but he’s probably not the only one.”

Deckard said things happen, and the bus driver did her best, but her only issue was that she didn’t find out about it until she got home from work. Her babysitter didn’t tell her because she didn’t want to upset her.Asked if she felt the district should have sent out a notification, Deckard said, “The mom in me says yes. The superintendent’s daughter says, ‘The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly,’ and it’s not that simple.” Armstrong said the district policy requires notifying parents of wrecks when there are injury accidents and/or serious damage to the bus or another vehicle involved.

Armstrong said she would take Deckard’s concern into consideration in the future. She said regarding the decision to open school, “the weather model at 3:30 a.m. yesterday was for snow to start at 10 a.m., which it did. Nothing was on the ground until that time.”“Closing early was not a good option yesterday,” Armstrong said. “Once it started to snow it was slick right away.

However, it was snow and not freezing rain accumulating. In the short term, giving the city and county and our crews time to make it as safe as possible outweighed releasing students before the regular time.”

“We had good reports from all drivers that the city and county were out there doing their best.”

Hood River County schools were closed yesterday, as were other school districts in the gorge.

At the high school, after a mid-day assembly the assistant principal reminded students they would still have fourth and fifth period to attend, and that school was not let out early.One student, however, said that their fourth period class had about half its normal attendance.