# So what happens when a bus driver makes an illegal U-turn on a busy highway? People die. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 19, 2018, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458 "2018-05-19T13:42:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/1 "2018-05-19T13:42:27Z")
[This](http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2018/05/nj_bus_accident_driver_attempted_illegal_u-turn_on_route_80_source_says-turn_on_route_80_source_says.html) is too stupid to believe. I’ve never driven in my life, yet I know that you don’t make U-turns or even back up on busy highways. EVER. Go to the next exit and go back. How can a professional bus driver be so stupid? ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/2 "2018-05-19T13:54:50Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I’ve never driven in my life, yet I know that you don’t make U-turns or even back up on busy highways. EVER. Go to the next exit and go back. In general, going in reverse to reach a missed exit is more idiotic than making an illegal U-turn. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/3 "2018-05-19T14:13:16Z")
I’m not sure that driving a school bus makes someone a “professional driver.” The bar for entry isn’t that high. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/4 "2018-05-19T14:24:15Z")
I think that this person isn’t going to be driving for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/5 "2018-05-19T14:42:54Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > I’m not sure that driving a school bus makes someone a “professional driver.” > > The bar for entry isn’t that high. The bar for entry is usually: Not on a sex offender list and willing to accept minimum wage. School bus is one of the few large vehicles except from requiring a Commercial Drivers License. When you operate within those parameters stupid stuff like this is bound to happen on occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/6 "2018-05-19T14:47:36Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > School bus is one of the few large vehicles except from requiring a Commercial Drivers License… School bus drivers are required to have CDL. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/7 "2018-05-19T14:49:10Z")
> [@Covfefe](#): > > In general, going in reverse to reach a missed exit is more idiotic than making an illegal U-turn. The first time I ever rode in a car where my mother-in-law was driving, she did this. Missed her exit, pulled over to the shoulder, and started backing up. That was also the _last_ time I ever rode in a car where my mother-in-law was driving. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/8 "2018-05-19T14:50:28Z")
It probably varies from state to state. Around here, there’s perpetual demand for them, so apparently the requirements aren’t _too_ easy to meet. Then again, as jobs go, it has really annoying hours, and not too many of them, so that might be a factor. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/9 "2018-05-19T15:08:05Z")
Professional drivers are slightly more trained than your average driver, but that ain’t saying much. Driver training in North America is a joke, with tens of thousands killed every year as the punchline. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/10 "2018-05-19T15:20:41Z")
As I understand it, it wasn’t _exactly_ a U-turn in the middle of undivided lanes of busy traffic, which the headline led me to believe, too. The bus driver was trying to use one of those “emergency vehicle only” turnaround lanes on a divided highway to go back the other way. Still illegal, and stupid, especially with a school bus. You’d be turning into the left lane with high-speed traffic completely unaware a big, slow school bus is just trying to get up to speed ahead of them. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2018, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/11 "2018-05-20T07:54:22Z")
Something like this happened four years ago in China when a bus driver decided to go into reverse to try catch a missed exit. [Video here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPsrEJC6Z5Q) ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/12 "2018-05-21T16:36:13Z")
I’m torn on this. Obviously, U-turn stupid plus illegal, on the other hand, is the situational awareness and driving skills of the oncoming drivers so poor that they can’t contend with a huge ass bus? Rhetorically speaking, of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be any deads. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2018, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/13 "2018-05-21T17:04:58Z")
Parts of Route 80 have a 65 mph speed limit. Hard to stop a dump truck short at that sort of speed, regardless of what’s in front of it. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/14 "2018-05-21T17:18:24Z")
People are idiots. I was once in the far right lane about to get onto an exit ramp off the Beltway. The sun was setting and it was raining. A woman (not being sexist, I could see it was most likely a female silhouette from where I was) 2-3 cars in front of me apparently was confused and wasn’t sure whether she needed to get off here or not, so instead of pulling over onto the shoulder to figure it out or otherwise doing a smart, safe thing, _she just stopped_. In the right lane. In moving traffic. On the Capital Beltway. At the tail end of rush hour, when people are especially tired and hurried. I stopped just a foot or two from the car in front of me, the car behind me barely stopped in time to not hit me, and then I started to hear more and more tires screeching behind me. I was just sitting there, unable to do anything, just waiting for the _SMACK_, for what felt like forever (it was probably only about 10 seconds, but as we all know, a LOT can go sideways, literally, in 10 seconds). There was moving traffic to my left so I couldn’t even leap out of the car, I was completely trapped. After however long, the idiot decided she didn’t need to get off at that exit and drove away, likely completely oblivious to the carnage she could have caused (or DID cause, I don’t really know what happened behind me). For a moment I _seriously_ considered chasing her down and beating the shit out of her, but I didn’t. People are _idiots_. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/15 "2018-05-22T01:46:31Z")
I did this once, years ago, when I was on empty and missed the “last chance for50 miles” gas station exit. However, this was on a very desolate stretch of I-15 between Vegas and St. George, Utah. I’d have run out of gas and been eaten by coyotes if I didn’t flip an Interstate U. But here in NJ? On that stretch of busy highway? Suicidal, homicidal, and breathtakingly stoopid. Maybe a zippy car could have pulled it off, but not a huge lumbering bus. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/16 "2018-05-22T02:09:55Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > People are idiots. > > I was once in the far right lane about to get onto an exit ramp off the Beltway. The sun was setting and it was raining. A woman (not being sexist, I could see it was most likely a female silhouette from where I was) 2-3 cars in front of me apparently was confused and wasn’t sure whether she needed to get off here or not, so instead of pulling over onto the shoulder to figure it out or otherwise doing a smart, safe thing, _she just stopped_. > > In the right lane. > > In moving traffic. > > On the Capital Beltway. > > At the tail end of rush hour, when people are especially tired and hurried. > > I stopped just a foot or two from the car in front of me, the car behind me barely stopped in time to not hit me, and then I started to hear more and more tires screeching behind me. I was just sitting there, unable to do anything, just waiting for the _SMACK_, for what felt like forever (it was probably only about 10 seconds, but as we all know, a LOT can go sideways, literally, in 10 seconds). There was moving traffic to my left so I couldn’t even leap out of the car, I was completely trapped. After however long, the idiot decided she didn’t need to get off at that exit and drove away, likely completely oblivious to the carnage she could have caused (or DID cause, I don’t really know what happened behind me). For a moment I _seriously_ considered chasing her down and beating the shit out of her, but I didn’t. > > People are _idiots_. Tell me that you at least honked your horn? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/17 "2018-05-22T02:15:48Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The first time I ever rode in a car where my mother-in-law was driving, she did this. Missed her exit, pulled over to the shoulder, and started backing up. > > That was also the _last_ time I ever rode in a car where my mother-in-law was driving. I used to take the bus to and from San Francisco State, which meant getting a transfer at the bus pad on the city side of the Golden Gate Bridge. At least once a month, some idiot would realize they’d missed the last exit before the bride, stop, and try to back down the on-ramp. Someone - maybe a toll taker, I don’t know - would get on a PA and yell at them until they stopped. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/18 "2018-05-22T02:19:44Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Tell me that you at least honked your horn? Of course. Everyone was, but she was either totally oblivious or so flustered she wasn’t even hearing it. What a moron. Driver’s licensing tests are far too easy. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/19 "2018-05-22T02:40:35Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > I did this once, years ago, when I was on empty and missed the “last chance for50 miles” gas station exit. However, this was on a very desolate stretch of I-15 between Vegas and St. George, Utah. I’d have run out of gas and been eaten by coyotes if I didn’t flip an Interstate U. I’m pretty sure that sign didn’t mean that there was no legal place to exit and turn around for 50 miles. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2018, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458/20 "2018-05-22T04:39:49Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > I’m torn on this. Obviously, U-turn stupid plus illegal, on the other hand, is the situational awareness and driving skills of the oncoming drivers so poor that they can’t contend with a huge ass bus? Rhetorically speaking, of course, otherwise there wouldn’t be any deads. I don’t know if the school bus was hit by oncoming traffic, but it was struck from behind by a dump truck, which also is a huge ass vehicle that takes as much skill as a school bus to handle safely. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happens-when-a-bus-driver-makes-an-illegal-u-turn-on-a-busy-highway-people-die/814458.md?page=2)