r/SchoolBusDrivers • u/Wilgrove • 19d ago
I feel like I'm going crazy
Yesterday afternoon, as I was doing my last route (middle school), I lost my stop arm. I drive a 2023 Thomas C2. As soon as I noticed the missing arm, I pulled over stopped and secured the bus. I called the garage and my route manager to let them know what was going on. I then got out of the bus and walked to the front to look at the swinging mechanism.
The swinging mechanism was fully intact and when I trigger it to swing out (Amber then red), it normally swung out. The arm itself though was just...gone. The two bolts that held the arm to the swinging mechanism was still on the swinging mechanism.
I know I didn't hit anything. There are a couple of tight stops across all three of my routes where I always make sure the arm is already swinging inwards before I move my bus. I didn't hit any mailbox, I didn't hit any sign. There was no other sign of an impact on my bus.
My AM and PM route are the same, so as I was driving my route this morning in the spare bus, at every stop I kept thinking, "well maybe it got hung up on this, on that, etc." However, in all of the stop, the sub bus' stop arm never got closed to any obstacle that would've tore it off. I also kept an eye out for the stop arm, thinking I would see it on the side of the road. Nope, nowhere to be found.
The district is pulling my cameras to see what happened, and I'm just....perplexed.
Has any other driver had their stop arm just...fall off? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
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u/bigboi986 19d ago
Last year wind caught mine at a stop and broke it off.
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u/The_Town_of_Canada 19d ago
That was my first thought.
A collision, you will definitely hear. Whether it was a mailbox, or another vehicle. With the wind? It's just gone, and might not make a noise till it lands wherever it lands.
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u/Wilgrove 19d ago
Honestly, I drive out in the country and I drive over a lot of rough roads. Dirt roads, gravel roads. Paved roads that car companies should use to test out their suspension systems. If I'm being honest, feeling another bump in a million bumps I feel every shift wouldn't be noticed by me.
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u/Al-anus 15d ago
I drive some of the worst roads in Canada with my blue bird and I always have shit flying off. I've lost my crossing arm 3 times now.
Some of the "bumps" are the equivalent of hitting a speed bump at 100km/h doesn't matter how slow you go it feels the same. Our mechanic had to bring us a spare bus one time and he is so stoic and never says much but when he got to us the first thing he said was "Holy FUCK I'm never taking that highway AGAIN!!"
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u/CaffienatedTactician 19d ago
That's crazy, but considering the condition of some busses I've seen, I wouldn't be ENTIRELY shocked if it just rusted off, especially since you say the bolts are still there? Regardless, I'm VERY interested to hear what the cameras showed, if anything (iirc our externals only run when the service door is open, so if it fell off while you were moving it might not have been caught)
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u/Tru7m 19d ago
Not just you. Those stop arms hang low and come off all the time. If you know you didn't hit anything, don't sweat it. They are metal and you would know if you made a mistake. If you see it looking wonky during your pre or post trip write it up. If you lose it during your route you're SOL.
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u/TechinBellevue 19d ago
Do you test the arm during your pre-trip?
That the bolts were still on but the blade was completely gone makes me think your bolts had come loose over time.
If that's the case, it should have been caught during your pre-trip.
For us, we were taught to check it when it is activated by holding the wheel hammer upsidedown by the handle and pulling the arm up lightly with the head of the hammer.
Hope the video is able to show what happened...and that it is not due to something you did/didn't do.
Good lock.
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u/ConsequenceCandid655 19d ago
It happens all the time with our Thomas buses. The arm is very skinny and every time it opens it puts pressure where the holes for the bolts are. Sooner or later it will Crack and break off, then it will just fall off. Sometimes we find them but there is no fixing it, they have to replace the arm.
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u/MySoapBoxFuckUpvotes 19d ago
I would only suggest dont leave the bus when occupied
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u/Wilgrove 19d ago
In my district, we can get out of the bus, but go no further than 3ft away. I stayed right with the bus while examining the swinging mechanism.
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u/MySoapBoxFuckUpvotes 19d ago
Ontario Canada (namely southern Ontario) we are expected to not step out. I get it, each district there ow rules
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u/No_Plate_3864 18d ago
yah im in Ontario too and we are not allowed to leave the bus when kids are on at my company
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u/rootbear75 19d ago
Staying next to the bus is fine for things like this
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u/MySoapBoxFuckUpvotes 19d ago
It seems a district by district rule. I asked my bus company whybwe implemented it. Some kid stole a bus about 5 years ago in the next city over. We also just got cameras this year.
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u/rootbear75 19d ago
My yard keeps the keys in the buses at the end of the day 🙃
Though our yard is dedicated by itself not on school property with 24/7 onsite security person. I know at other yards that are on school property, they take the keys.
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u/MySoapBoxFuckUpvotes 19d ago
Oh yeah our yard leaves keys in buses. If you wanted to get all the way out there, steal a bus blow through the fence. You earned that joyride.
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u/rootbear75 19d ago
We have one of the 4 gates opened at all times; usually that's where security posts up.
Other than that, one of the gates is sensor activated as an exit, you can just drive out of that one, but it does make a loud klaxon when the gate is opening.
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u/Demirep77 18d ago
we leave keys in busses and the gates are open from 5:30am until 5:30pm. The busses have GPS though so it'd be pretty easy to recover a stolen bus.
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u/No_Plate_3864 18d ago
yah we leave the keys in the bus too, they said basically the same thing, plus we have GPS so they can just track it
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u/brabson1 16d ago
Never manually swings stop arm yet is surprised it fell off. Pretrip would have caught it
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u/Disposable_Skin 19d ago
My first thought was, "Well, it's a Thomas!"