My word woman, just take some responsibility!!!! (not Pit-worthy rant)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In the mail at work the other day, I get a notice from a neighboring city. Their Red Light Enforcement program nabbed one of my buses. Now, personally, I abhor all such remote, anonymous revenue generating streams like speeding cameras, and these red light ones.

But, given that it’s going to cost someone $100 to get the violation cleared, and we, as the owner of the bus, are on the hook for it, I make one of those snap, command decisions I’m famous for around here and decide “oh no we’re not”.

I go back and check field trip logs, the daily bus assignment list (drivers on trips don’t always use their normally assigned route bus) and DOT logs to check and cross-check who was driving the bus. Got it.

Call the union president to let her know we have to talk. She’s good people, I tell her my plan, which consists of (A) Official sounding letter to driver’s file, (B) I’ll hand carry a check to the city and © we deduct the $$ from her check.

So, we call - because the lady is home sick - and have a talk.

  1. It couldn’t be me, the bus number on the picture must be wrong.
    Nope, try again
  2. No, the light wasn’t even yellow when I went through.
    But I thought it wasn’t you?
  3. The driver in front must have been too close, obstructing my view of the light.
    Ah yes, you weren’t following too close, she was driving too close to your front! Besides, the picture says otherwise, the bus in front is easily 75 feet in front of you.
  4. I don’t know, more BS.

Seriously. Stop it. You ran a red on a left turn, you got caught, you’re getting a break because it’s not a moving violation and won’t show on your license. Say “oh damn, I was wrong, I messed up, I understand, it won’t happen again”

Not much else changes except the little teeny bit of respect people might have had for the way you handled this.

2

But… but… the sun was in her eyes! And this bug flew in the window and distracted her because she thought it was going to bite/sting/spit on her. And there were flaming orphan puppies on the side and she had to rush over and rescue them. And… and… um, I got nothing.

3

For some reason, I thought “Red Light Enforcement” was some kind of anti-prostitution taskforce, and your driver had been running a brothel in the bus.

4

“I didn’t do it! Besides, it was my duty to.”
-Frank Burns

5

But the Doppler shift made the light look green!

Ah, so you were speeding.:smiley:

6

That’s pretty much exactly what I thought as well. I think maybe I need to get my mind out of the gutter.

7

“No I didn’t. Honest… I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tire. I didn’t have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn’t come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!”

8

Oh, it’s probably not an issue of mind-in-the-gutter. It’s just that this is the Internet and the Internet is for porn. At least, that’s the excuse I’m using as to why I thought ‘Red Light Enforcement program’ had to do with prostitution*. And, unlike the OP lady, I’m sticking to it.

*Anyone else think that word has too many T’s in it?

9

Nice to hear about a left-turn-red-light-runner get what’s due.

10

How is running a red light not a moving violation?

11

Because if it’s a moving violation people will fight it, and that means the red light camera system gets a real close look.

12

When caught by a red-light camera the registered owner of the vehicle is ticketed. No points are issued because it cannot be determined that the ownwer was also the driver.

If the school bus driver were pulled over by a cop, then she would get the ticket, as well as the moving violation points.

13

That’s what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t remember the whole speech.

14

Interesting. In Australia we do get the points against our license. The onus is on us to prove that the registered owner was not the driver.

The points on my license are all courtesy of Lady M’s lead foot. Well, there is one which both of us deny being responsible for, but certainly the rest are hers.

We once went through the bother of reassigning the responsibility to her. The registered owner needs to complete a statutory declaration with all details of the known driver, which is then witnessed by a Justice of the Peace and sent to the traffic authority. They then reissue the ticket to the nominated driver.

Trying to get out of a fine by nominating someone who was not the driver can have unfortunate consequences. :wink:

It was such a pain to reassign the responsibility that I’m happier just to take the hit on my license. I may change my mind if it happens too many times and my license ends up in danger. :eek:

15

Except in this case, the registered owner is a school district that owns 112 buses, and there’d be no way for the camera-entity to know who was driving the bus. They cite us.

16

I didn’t do it, nobody saw me, you can’t prove nothin’! ! !

Or maybe:
have you any idea of how little we bus drivers are paid? How do you expect me to buy groceries next month if you send $100 of my money to the State?

17

The good thing about reassigning is that you get another month to pay up :p. Not sure what happens if you then try to say “Oh no, sorry, our mistake, it was the Registered Spouse who was driving all along.”

I suspect probably they kick your ass at that point, so I’ve never tried it (well, that and the whole “lying to law enforcement” bit, which is kind of a bad idea)

–another spouse with a lead foot.

18

You don’t want to try that excuse!

19

Stop reading my mind, you!

20

If a prostitute schools you in sex, do you have to pay her prostituition?