Student Catches Bus Driver Texting While Driving

With the start of a new school year, parents across the state of North Dakota likely have a lot of things on their minds when it comes to their children. Are they doing well in school? How much will extracurricular activities cost this year? Will they make any new friends?

Among these concerns should never be whether their children are getting to and from school safely. That’s because most parents assume that their child’s bus driver is operating the school bus in the safest manner possible. Unfortunately, a cellphone video out of Florida this month shows a bus driver texting while driving and could raise red flags with parents across the nation about their children’s safety while on the school bus.

For those of our readers who may not have heard about this story, a 14 year old student captured a video on her cellphone of her bus driver while she drove a bus full of students home from school one day. While driving through traffic, the bus driver appears to be texting. As many of our readers are probably already thinking, this reckless behavior could have ended in a serious, if not fatal, accident.

After being shown the video, the school district told local reporters that they had a policy against bus drivers using mobile devices while operating a school vehicle and have since identified the driver and put her on “non-driving” duty until an investigation can be completed.

Like those parents in Florida, parents here in North Dakota may now have concerns about the safety of their children when riding the school bus. While we hear stories about distracted driving happening with people behind the wheel of cars and other motor vehicles, most people assume that bus drivers know better and would take every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of the children on board their bus. Though no one was injured as a result of the bus driver’s negligent behavior, the situation could have ended quite differently, even ending in serious injury or death.

Source: ABC Action News, “Cell phone video appears to show Hillsborough school bus driver texting behind the wheel,” Ryan Raiche, Sept. 18, 2013.