Most students ride the bus everyday, but it wasn’t until recently that I noticed that we don’t wear seatbelts. Yes, a crash wouldn’t have as much impact because it’s a considerably larger vehicle compared to your family minivan but still, if your bus driver brakes suddenly, you can go flying. In fact, I remember pulling out of the school driveway in middle school en route to Blair when all of a sudden my bus driver pressed down on the brakes and yelled at a couple of guys to sit down. It would have been fine if I didn’t end up face planting the seat in front of me. And when I looked up to see what was wrong, the driver acted like nothing was wrong.

And even more traumatic instances have occurred like to senior Dustin Mitcham of Clarksburg High School whose bus driver lost control after experiencing medical issues on the morning ride to school last week. Although Mitcham and his fellow bus rider’s quick action was able to stop the bus from hitting light poles, it still put the safety of everyone on his bus in danger.

Another situation involved a Blair bus that was near Four Corners when a truck sideswiped it directly where students were sitting. Even though everyone ended up being fine, all the students had to take mandatory concussion evaluations in the nurse’s office once they got to school, which left a lot of students shaken up.

All of these situations were out of student control even though in some circumstances, like Mitcham’s, students were able to take initiative and prevent a potential accident from occurring. The Montgomery County Public School System has certain bus safety regulations that their drivers must follow like, “No bus may cross a mainline railroad track at grade level in Montgomery County” and “All roads and bridges must be able to sustain the weight of the bus.” But most students don’t really think about all these policies when they get on the bus with not enough sleep and a long day ahead of them.

Now the problem is how to make buses even safer with so many precautions already in place. Well most of the technical rules and regulations are already being enforced so it’s really up to the students. Even though these measures are taken by the county to make sure that students are kept safe while on the bus, anything can happen. And a bus driver’s state can change in the blink of the eye. There’s really no way to guarantee that your driver doesn’t need medical attention in the middle of the route but ways to improve safety are ask students to be more attentive while on the bus and notice their surroundings a little more. It’s hard but if something seems off, the bus is a little shaky or swearing more than usual, go up and check on your driver and make sure everything’s ok.