by David Flint
The driver of a school bus van that got stuck in the snow last Thursday, January 8 should never have been on that road, according to Rensselaer County spokesman Chris Meyer. The van got stuck on a seasonal portion of North Moore Hill Road in North Stephentown. Seasonal roads are not plowed in winter and are officially closed to traffic from October 15 to April 15.
State Police reported that a call was received shortly after 5 pm from the Rensselaer County 911 Center that the van carrying three young children, a bus monitor and driver was missing. The van, owned by Folmsbee Transportation in Waterford, had picked up the children, all preschoolers, at 2 pm from the Capital District Beginnings program housed at Berlin Elementary School. Police said the van was equipped with a radio but the driver was unable to contact home base with it due to the rural area and lack of system signal. The bus monitor, likewise unable to get a signal on her cell phone, then walked for a distance from the bus and was eventually able to contact the Folmsbee garage and advise them that the van was off the road in an area off of CC Dam Road. She was unsure of their exact location, and the cell phone she used to make the call was losing battery power.
State Police and Rensselaer County Sheriff patrols then initiated a search, requesting that the Stephentown Fire Department stand by at their station for back up.
Shortly after 7 pm, a State Police helicopter, a Folmsbee mechanic and a snowmobiler located the bus in the seasonal part of North Moore Hill Road. The snowmobiler was reported to be a relative of one of the children and had been out looking for the van.
Police said the driver, monitor and children were all found to be in good health. The bus driver had been able to keep the bus running and the children were kept warm. The bus was towed out of the snow.
The State Police Investigation revealed that this was the monitor’s first day on the job and there was a variation in the usual route due to a different drop-off point for one of the children.
Meyer said the County Health Department, which has the contract with Folmsbee for transporting Capital District Beginnings children, has met with the company and will be reviewing the elements of the contract and taking steps to insure that nothing like this ever happens again. Meyer insisted, however, that the contract is very clear that drivers are required to know the local roads and to travel only on passable and safe routes.
Meyer said he understood that the van did indeed have a working radio. Although there is in Cherry Plain a Rensselaer County emergency services communication tower not too far from the spot where the van got stuck, he did not know whether Folmsbee’s radios could communicate with that tower. He did note that the Berlin Central School District just last year instituted an enhanced radio system that does make use of the Cherry Plain tower. Meyer said the County will be considering such an enhanced system for bus companies that it contracts with.
Meyer admonished that besides the fact that the bus should not have been on that road, the monitor’s first cell phone call should have been to 911. But what’s most important, he said, was that the children are safe.