Despite hazardous driving conditions, Prince William County school buses took to the roads Tuesday morning, which resulted in 12 bus crashes and 18 traffic obstructions between 5 a.m. and 12 p.m.
While no students were reported injured, bus trips to school were extremely long and students spent extended time at bus stops.
Some residents even reported on social media that some buses were involved in multiple accidents. As a result students were removed from one bus, placed on another only to face further delays due to road conditions.
Long bus trips of up to, or in some cases, over two hours long also meant that some students were left waiting outside in the snow at their bus stops. Additionally, the extended drive to school meant that many students were essentially late even though there was no delay called.
Prince William County Schools made the controversial decision to open schools at their regular start times at an early hour when forecasts for snow were still light. As the morning progressed, forecasts were adjusted until weather reports said the area could expect four to six inches of accumulating snow.
For Prince William bus drivers, the experience was harrowing. One bus driver commented that this was the “worst morning in my 17 years [of bus driving].”
This driver felt fortunate to have delivered the students in her care to school without incident, but said she feels for those other bus drivers involved in accidents.
“The side roads were completely untreated, and most buses slid and slipped at every single bus stop. I know I personally was more than 40 minutes late arriving at my high school, middle school and elementary school,” she said.
Roads were bad because even major county roads had not been plowed or salted. VDOT said this is because, like Prince William County Schools, they believed the snow would just be a dusting.
Another problem bus drivers faced was heavy traffic due to accidents and drivers driving slowly.
“The traffic was very heavy, and usually the main roads only had one plowed lane. {There were many, many bus incidents today. Many buses stuck on roads unable to move. Many buses were hit by cars that had lost control. It was truly treacherous out there,” she said.
She wants residents to know that drivers navigated their routes the best they could under extremely treacherous conditions.
“We are professional drivers, and we are trained well and are confident of our driving skills, but when you put drivers in the position we were placed in this morning, where we can only control our own vehicles and have no control over others, it's unsafe for everyone,” she said.
She said that she completely understands the difficulty involved in making a timely decision when facing an incoming storm. However, she said that moving forward, she hopes the school division will see the benefit of a one or two hour delay.
“Given the fact that we have the built-in extra 10 minutes of every school day this year, I would have assumed we would have availed ourselves of a one hour or two hour delay this morning, to make sure it would be a safe ride for students and staff,” she said.
Between 7:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., Prince William police responded to so many crashes that they had to limit their immediate response to accidents involving injuries or other extenuating circumstances.
Police report that there were 101 accidents county-wide and 40 traffic weather-related traffic obstructions today.
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