Kids laughing.
A girl and boy flirting.
Indistinct music from the radio.
There wasn’t anything unusual happening aboard Manatee County School District bus No. 560 as it headed west on State Road 64 near Walmart with the surveillance video camera rolling Thursday afternoon.
How quickly calm became chaos for 26 Braden River Middle School students, most of whom would be hospitalized before the day was done.
A day they and their families won’t forget for a long, long time.
It began to change for the worse after 68-year-old bus driver Robert Orr is seen turning around. Then, looking straight ahead, he passed over his head what school district officials called a “courtesy” notice. He gave it to a student behind him to pass to a male student further back for being too loud.
It would get frighteningly louder seconds later.
Students’ shouts and screams filled the bus, moving at 34 mph, as it closed on the rear end of a Walmart 18-wheeler stopped at a red light.
“Whoooaaa!”
“Oh, my God!”
“OOOOOH, MY GOD!”
“HEY! HEEEY! HEEEEEEEEEEY!”
It was heartstopping.
Orr did not see the 18-wheeler until way too late.
Though the collision knocked the surveillance video camera askew, it still managed to capture the images and sounds of people at their finest as the drama unfolded.
Like Sam Long, who leaped aboard the moving bus, one of several bystanders who helped steer the 15-ton vehicle to a stop, some by hanging onto its exterior rearview mirrors.
The video also captured young people at their worst.
One or two male students can be heard cursing at the injured driver as he struggled to stop the bus, his legs pinned by the collapsed dashboard and firewall.
Yes, they’re only adolescents, but their actions exacerbated an already frantic situation.
Panicked kids dove out windows or through the emergency door, while others were too hurt or traumatized to move.
Horrifying.
Thank God, this accident didn’t end up costing lives.
Yet questions remain.
Orr, a substitute driver since October, was cited for careless driving by the Florida Highway Patrol.
School district officials say protocol for a bus driver handing out such courtesy notices or referrals on misbehaving students is when the bus is at a stop, not while it’s in motion.
Orr was an experienced bus driver with a clean record, so was he that distracted?
Or was it something that happened earlier after the bus departed school?
School district officials said they had not seen that portion of the surveillance video.
Was Thursday’s distraction a one-time thing?
Or was there a pattern of student conduct on bus No. 560 that warranted previous courtesy notices and referrals by Orr?
School district officials said they intended to find out.
Until then, they’ll give thanks.
Thanks that Thursday did not turn into tragedy.
Mannix About Manatee, by co- lumnist Vin Mannix, is about people and issues in Manatee County. Please call Vin Mannix at 941-745-7055, write him at Bradenton Herald, P.O. Box 921, Bradenton, FL. 34206 or e-mail him at vmannix@bradenton.com. Please include a phone number for verification purposes.
