Value of a Child’s Life

By Andy Kober

When did using a phone become more important than a child’s life?
It was midafternoon one day late last week and I was in the front yard watering Theresa’s flowers.
School buses were taking children home. Whenever school buses pass by and I am outside, I wave at the drivers and they inevitably wave back. For what those drivers get paid, and the tremendous responsibility they shoulder on a daily basis, they truly deserve our admiration and appreciation. I suspect they rarely receive either.
There are two school buses that come by and drop off children each afternoon. The first one passed, the driver and I exchanged waves, and two houses along it stopped to unload a child.
Shortly afterward, the second bus approached and that driver and I exchanged waves. It stopped three houses down to unload a child. I wasn’t looking at the bus when I heard the driver frantically blowing the horn. I turned and saw …
The bus was stopped, the flashing red lights were on and the stop sign was clearly swung out. Despite all that, a car coming from the opposition direction blasted past the bus, apparently never attempting to stop. Thankfully, the child was not yet crossing the road, perhaps the alert bus driver stopped her, because if she had I have no doubt that child would have died right there. The speed limit on this county road is 45 miles per hour and there was plenty of sight distance for the driver of the car to see the stopped school bus.
As the car approached our driveway, my right hand was still holding the garden hose, but I lifted my left hand and shouted at the driver, “What are you doing?” as she drove past – possibly oblivious to the tragedy she had nearly created.
The driver, a white female, never looked. And why not? Because she was engrossed with her phone, which I could clearly see her holding in front of and to the right of her steering wheel.
THERE was absolutely no phone call, no text message, no anything else that was worth that child’s life, that could have ended right then and there.
In a split second, multiple lives could have been ruined. The child’s life would have been ruined, provided she survived the impact. The lives of that child’s parents would have been ruined as they would have to deal with aftermath of such a tragedy, forever questioning what they might have done different to avoid the tragedy. We can only imagine the emotional horrors the bus driver and other children on the bus would have to face. Finally, the woman whose phone was so much more important than the life of a child – deserving whatever would happened to her.
Perhaps it is time for Harris County, and other neighboring school districts, to implement cameras on school buses. Our neighbors in Muscogee County already have cameras on school buses. Are their children any more important than our children?
I think not.
That’s my opinion.
Andy Kober can be reached by email at andykober@hotmail.com