School bus drivers test skills on safety course - Hometownstations.com-WLIO- Lima, OH News Weather Sports

School bus drivers test skills on safety course

They drive our kids to school every day. Rarely do parents second guess the skills of school bus drivers. For the drivers, the safety of the children is of the up-most importance.    

To help improve their safe driving skills, bus drivers took to the course as part of the regional school bus safety Road-E-O Saturday.

Driving a car through an obstacle course of cones may be difficult for some people, but imagine doing it in a 30 to 40 foot school bus. That is exactly what area bus drivers did Saturday morning, helping to sharpen their driving skills.

For Sandy Bechtol, the most important thing about being a bus driver is the safety of the kids.

On the course, drivers were asked to demonstrate their pick-up and drop off skills, their ability to safely adjust lanes as if cars lined the road with oncoming traffic, the ability to turn around in a driveway, and what seemed to get many drivers, weaving through cones backwards. These challenges help to improve skills that national statistics show are lacking.

While the drivers do have fun, some obstacles have been known to cause some stress, especially the off-set lane challenge and the task that asks drivers to stop their right front tire on a white line.

While nerve racking, Sandy did just fine, surpassing her expectation in the white line challenge, where she stopped right on the line.

Be sure to thank your bus drivers on Monday, as schools across the country thank drivers for their service during Bus Driver Appreciation Day.