The law only applies to a commercial drivers license and those are only required under specific circumstances, like transporting 16 or more people (pope-le?). Funny, though, when my previous church ran into this issue we (the church) asked for a member to get a CDL and paid the fees from the church budget. I guess that’s asking too much in MS.
Interestingly, in GA it’s difficult to insure a 15 passenger van anymore - mostly due to their popularity among non-profits (including churches) and the associated accidents.
Everybody on the bus, we’re headed to the annual church picnic! Today it’s little Timmy’s turn to drive. Don’t worry, Jesus will help him reach the pedals.
Years ago, I began to notice that church van accidents seemed to be way too common. It may have just be observation bias on my part. It’s one of the things you ponder on when you drive for a living. I tried to come up with some causes and I came up with these:
They are more likely to be driven by untrained drivers.
They are more likely to be over-stuffed with people, making the accidents more newsworthy.
No one particular person in the organization takes responsibility for the maintenance of the van.
Their trips likely exceed to driver fatigue limit.
It wasn’t long thereafter when one of the more tragic accidents occurred on I20. The van had broken rear shocks, was full of sleeping passengers, and was driving well below the speed limit when a tractor-trailer came over a rise and rear-ended it without even having time to hit the brakes. It kinda confirmed by half-baked theory.
That’s why, in my opinion, any law that exempts churches, or any other organization, from the same safety regulations as commercial carriers, it colossally stupid.
Is there any evidence this is a real story? I get the strong feeling this is a parody article. Moreover, I can’t find this story on any “reputable” news site.
I’m thinking this must be similar to that case recently, where the Southern gentleman wants to remove the regulation about restaurant employees washing their hands before returning to work – but replace it with a regulation requiring restaurants to post a notice advising customers of its policy. The argument was that the free market would take care of it.
So. This law should require a notice to be conspicuously displayed at the entrance to any bus that is driven by a non-certified driver. Then the prospective passengers could make an informed choice on whether to ride in the bus. Problem solved!
A cousin made me a dashboard Jesus wearing a crash helmet; he rode with me to go hunting a lot of mornings and knew what he was doing.
On the serious side, it isn’t so much that churches think God will save them as it is churches relying on volunteers. And in a lot of places needing to bring congregants in from very rural areas. With a lot of congregations just holding on by the skin of their teeth financially, the thought (if you agree or not) is that professional drivers are just beyond their reach.
Personally I drive myself to church; rode a van once and checked that off my bucket list before it caused me to kick that bucket.
Professional pilots and nuclear engineers are probably beyond their reach too, but churches shouldn’t be exempt from licensing to fly planes or operate nuclear power plants. If they want to operate a bus they should get a licensed driver. If they can’t, then their congregants will have to get where they want to go in smaller vehicles.
