Dayton, OH – A motorcyclist may have been injured in a hit and run accident involving a city bus on the 16th of September in Dayton, OH.
I’ll apologize up front for the vagueness of the details. It’s rare that accidents without injuries make the news, but this one is so far beyond that pale that it needs to be talked about.
Apparently, last Wednesday, Robin Williams, driver of Public School Bus 138, in Dayton, was involved in a hit and run accident with a motorcyclist. We’re not sure if the motorcyclist was injured. However, we only know about the story because the children on the bus told their parents about it. To make matters worse, this is Ms. Williams’ second alleged hit and run accident in the past month. Ms. Williams has been charged in the first accident. There’s no word about an investigation into this incident.
Map of the Alleged Accident Intersection
Commentary:
Where else do you start on this one? Just on a common sense level, when a police officer discharges their weapon, they’re put on paid leave until the investigation is complete, but when someone entrusted with transporting our children is charged with a hit and run offense, they get to stay on the job until the matter plays out in court?
We don’t usually comment on the specifics of a news story, but this second accident came 5 days after a local news story found that Ms. Williams may have too many points on her license to even legally drive a bus in Ohio. Hopefully, the motorcyclist who is alleged to have been struck is perfectly alright.
What is really shocking to the senses in this case, are the layers of potential negligence involved. The city has a duty not only to make sure that school children are transported safely to and from school, but also to the motorists who share the roads with city buses.
They claim that the bus driver was eligible to be hired and that seems reasonable enough. I know I never interviewed the woman and I never ran her driving record, however according to at least one of the articles I read, I get the impression that the city does not feel it has an obligation to monitor its employees once they’re hired.
Nothing could be further from the truth. You would expect a hospital to periodically check to make sure its doctors were still licensed to practice medicine. Part of any profession that requires licensing is the periodic verification that those licenses are up to date. In this case it’s not like the school district can say they didn’t know Ms. Williams qualifications were in question, a T.V. station brought the issue right to them.
I’ll just go back to my initial thought: this is almost unbelievable. I think it’s safe to say that this is exactly the kind of thing you don’t want to see on the five o’clock news, and it’s a little shocking that folks aren’t making a bigger deal out of this.
