Good morning. We have made it to the middle of the workweek.
Aside from all the usual tropes about knowing that fall is in full swing – leaves, pumpkins, apples, woodsmoke smells etc. – there is the return to the morning commute of the familiar and iconic yellow school bus.
Who among us has positive memories of the school bus? I would hazard a guess that the number is very small.
I hated everything about the bus – waiting for it with the big kids who were mean or (worse yet?) dismissive, the way it smelled when it rained or snowed and was jam-packed full of overheated bodies, the weird/angry/scary driver, the anxiety of being forced to sit with someone you didn’t like.
The list goes on and on. Never was I happier than when I was able to catch a ride to school with one of my parents, or, better still, when I graduated from elementary school to middle school, which was located less than half a mile away from my house, which enabled me to forgo the bus altogether and walk.
FREEDOM!
I was back on the bus for freshman and sophomore years of high school, which truly sucked. But then I befriended and/or dated people who drove, and then by my junior year, I got my own license and was able to drive myself.
Now that I’m a mostly childless adult whose teenage stepson is usually driven to school (on the days he’s with us) by his father, my experience with the school bus is limited to when I encounter them in traffic, which is to say that they are generally delaying my forward progress.
School buses, by definition, make a lot of stops. This is their sole purpose in life, so to speak. And yes, they are annoying if you happen to be on a deadline and get stuck behind one.
But no matter how late you might be to that appointment or meeting, there is NO EARTHLY OR LEGAL REASON to pass a school bus that has its lights flashing red or its stop-arm extended, which means it is in the process of picking up or dropping off passengers.
By the way, this is true even if you are on a divided highway and the school bus is traveling in the opposite direction. When its lights flash yellow, it means it is preparing to stop, which means drivers – both behind the bus and coming toward it – should slow down in preparation to come to a full stop at least 20 feet away.
According to the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC), 2.3 million children are transported by more than 50,000 school buses annually across New York, and an estimated 50,000 motor vehicles illegally pass school buses in this state every day.
Children ages 4 to 8 (grades K-3) are most susceptible to a school bus fatality. These kids, who tend to be smaller and harder for motorists to see, represent less than 35% of the student population, but were involved in 69% of the fatalities (79 out of 114).
From a crashworthiness standpoint, school buses have a pretty good track record. According to the US DOT, American students are are nearly eight times safer riding in a school bus than while riding with their own parents and guardians in cars.
(Aside, if you’re thinking: But what about that terrible bus crash that happened just recently on the Thruway? It wasn’t a school bus, for the record).
The fatality rate for school buses is only 0.2 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) compared to 1.5 fatalities per 100 million VMT for cars. School bus-related crashes killed 108 people nationwide in 2021, up 50% compared to the pandemic-related low number of 54 deaths in 2020, according to National Safety Council (NSC) data.
We are in the throes of National School Bus Safety Week (Oct. 16 – 20), which apparently has been around since the 1970s. It’s a good opportunity to thank a bus driver, and ICYMI, there’s a shortage of those these days. So be extra nice to the ones reporting for duty. It can’t be an easy job. I’m glad I don’t have to do it.
The day will start with a mix of sun and clouds and become increasingly cloudy as things progress. Temperatures will be in the mid 60s.
In the headlines…
President Biden’s trip to Jordan has been cancelled following the deadly hospital attack in Gaza, the White House said while the president was leaving to head to Israel.
A massive blast rocked the Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds of people. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
Hundreds of Lebanese protesters, including some waving Palestinian flags, swarmed the US embassy in Beirut yesterday evening in response to the massive blast at a Gaza City hospital that reportedly killed hundreds of people.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a conservative firebrand allied with former president Donald Trump, failed to win over enough Republican holdouts to reach a majority on the House floor to become the next speaker.
Following the first ballot, Jordan huddled with his close allies on the House floor, before interim Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry called a recess of the House.
The Ohio Republican confirmed yesterday evening that there would not be another round of voting until at least 11 a.m. today.
Twenty Republicans – including four members of New York’s GOP delegation – voted against Jordan’s candidacy, far more than the handful he could afford to lose given the party’s narrow majority in Congress.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries indicated that his caucus would be open to reaching some form of agreement with “traditional Republicans” to reopen the House, saying that informal conversations have “accelerated” the last few days.
Gov. Kathy Hochul pressed the White House on more funding and added staffing to deal with the migrant crisis — while conceding the deportation of Venezuelans has led to a decrease in asylum seekers at the border.
Before flying to Israel, Hochul met yesterday morning in Washington with Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff, for a discussion about Israel and the migrant crisis in New York City, according to the governor’s office.
SUNY is waiving application fees for 64 colleges and universities through the remainder of October.
The state and federal investigations of Andrew Cuomo and his administration have cost taxpayers at least $20 million in legal fees, which continue to mount as he defends himself in two sexual harassment lawsuits as well as an ongoing court battle over his book.
The New York Times’ former Albany bureau chief acted inappropriately to Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa and was reassigned from the beat following an investigation into his behavior, DeRosa alleged in her forthcoming book.
DeRosa accused Times reporter Jesse McKinley, who broke the story of Cuomo allegedly sexually harassing a young former aide, of inappropriate behavior when the two met in his backyard in order to clear the air after he had a charged exchange with her boss.
DocGo, the publicly traded health care company under contract with New York City to oversee thousands of migrants, has brought back its embattled former chief executive officer under a $225,000 consulting contract.
The state’s application window for adult-use cannabis stakeholders will be extended more than two weeks though Cannabis Control Board members noted the extra time will likely increase the number of applicants jostling for a limited number of licenses.
The state Office of Victims Services has petitioned a court to freeze more than $660,000 in two bank accounts held by Jacob L. Klein, who was convicted two weeks ago of murdering Philip L. Rabadi in his New Scotland residence last year.
A rift may be opening between Mayor Eric Adams and some leaders of the city’s Muslim community, who in recent days have criticized the mayor for speaking publicly about the deaths of Israelis but not Palestinians.
A day after accusing the Democratic Socialists of America of being among those flashing swastikas and calling for the extermination of Jews at a controversial pro-Palestinian rally, Adams declined to provide evidence to back up those claims.
A group representing New York’s black clergy is rallying around Israel and demanding that a Queens pol, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, disavow the Democratic Socialists of America for its support of Hamas.
It was a tense scene in Washington Square Park last night as protesters confronted each other about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, just hours after a bombing at a Gaza hospital killed hundreds.
The men’s soccer team at Yeshiva University was having a strong season, maybe its best ever. Then came the news from Israel.
Adams offered inconsistent statements when when speaking about whether migrant children would have to relocate to different schools once they and their families face removal from city homeless shelters after 60 days under a new rule.
Fewer than half of the migrants who have been forced to reapply for housing after the city’s new 60-day limit have returned to the Big Apple’s shelter system, officials said.
One of Adams’ prominent aides was “accosted” by a security guard at a Manhattan migrant assistance center while trying to enter the facility for a standard inspection yesterday, according to City Hall and law enforcement sources.
A New York City deli was vandalized with a swastika in an anti-Semitic attack that took place after the eatery posted pro-Israel content on their social media.
A New York emergency room doctor who worked at Lenox Hill Hospital and Brookdale University Hospital was fired by the medical group that employed her over comments sympathetic to Hamas’ Oct. 7 mass slaughter of Israeli citizens.
Five people were injured, three critically, when a massive fire sparked by a lithium-ion battery tore through a Brooklyn apartment early yesterday, FDNY officials said.
New York is on track for its deadliest year for cyclist fatalities in nearly a quarter century, according to a review of city data conducted by advocates at Transportation Alternatives.
As one of the most expensive cities in the world, it should come as no surprise that a third of New Yorkers are forking over half their income for rent.
The latest report from the nonprofit the Community Service Society of New York found that 55% of households, or nearly 1.2 million households, in the Big Apple were “rent-burdened” in 2021, meaning tenants spent at least 30% of their income on rent.
A new law to reduce class size in New York City has large support among families, but early tensions could signal a turbulent political road ahead.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has struggled to deliver the boosts in service that it promised on the R and the N lines as part of a $35 million package in the state budget to pay for running more trains, preliminary agency data shows.
Regions that will benefit the most from the $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act in the U.S. will be those able to grow and sustain chip manufacturing clusters, a U.S. Commerce Department official told the New York State Innovation Summit in Saratoga Springs.
An email about the sale of a city police horse could lead to a sexual harassment investigation and further splintering in Saratoga Springs city government in the run-up to November elections.
A state Supreme Court jury cleared Saratoga Springs police in the death of Darryl Mount Jr., deliberating for just three hours before rejecting all claims filed in his family’s wrongful death lawsuit.
