Hanoch Ne’eman 28 Elul 5781, updated on 9 Shevat 5782
Last week, up North, a bus with a Bnei Akiva group hit some other vehicles. A mother and three children were killed in a cab which was hit by the bus.
An article in the news says the bus driver had 51 traffic convictions. Later I learned that they were from many years, and included running red lights. Though they were from several years before this accident. The driver was about seventy years old.
We need to internalize deeply that DRIVING A CAR IS A PRIVILEGE, NOT A RIGHT. It is a privilege you earn by obeying the traffic rules. To get a ticket for running a light, how many times do you think someone did it and didn’t get a ticket? Doing it once should be enough to lose one’s license. Massive fines.
This is a heart breaking story. Kids on the bus said the driver sped up several times and slowed suddenly to get the kids to stop screaming and making noise. No doubt it was highly disturbing to him. Too bad he did not just park and refuse to drive until it was quiet. The bus driver was killed too in the crash. I am sure he was a nice guy, as family and friends attested, but he was not a responsible enough driver, and should not have been driving. He is not alone. There are thousands like him. It’s our job as a society to get them off the road, out of drivers’ seats. Remember: privilege, not right.
And kids will be kids, if we let them. We should let them, but not in buses. We have to say this is also unacceptable and dangerous, that youth scream and make ruckus on buses. The Bnai Akiva group in my neighborhood meets near me. Often on Shabbat they get together, and it seems their main activity is screaming. I would not enjoy that as a youth, but if they do, that’s their business. My friend’s son, who his family made Aliyah nearly two years ago, goes there, and he says “it’s crazy there”. Again, that’s their business, but this accident I hope will serve to be a warning to them and other youth on buses that the road is not the place for screaming at all. I know all this is obvious, but just remember it anytime you may be involved with kids and buses.
Cartoon credit: Sanskritischools.com
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