A school bus driver maneuvers a bus through closely spaced traffic cones, demonstrating how to move the bus through tight places during a bus driver refresher course held in Huron Monday. In the next photo, instructor Dan Duenwald, in back, and school bus drivers evacuate a hypothetical wheel chair passenger out the rear exit door in a training session, simulating how it would be done if the automatic chair lift on the side of the bus were damaged and inoperable after an accident. PHOTOS BY ROGER LARSEN/PLAINSMAN

Bus drivers from Huron and area school districts and People’s Transit on Monday had a refresher course on how to keep their passengers safe in case of an emergency.

Dan Duenwald of Harlow’s Bus Sales of Webster taught the four-hour behind-the-wheel training session the drivers with commercial licenses are required to have annually to maintain their certification.

The class included a “bus rodeo” in which the drivers guided buses through five basic bus maneuvers with the use of traffic cones in the Huron High School parking lot.

One maneuver involved a simulation in which they backed a bus onto a rural approach with a ditch on the opposite side.

Drivers also had to take a bus through a double row of cones spaced closely together, prompting Duenwald to remark that they obviously had experience in going through narrow places on their routes.

Training also included how to evacuate a bus quickly and safely in an emergency, and how to get a wheelchair-bound passenger out the rear emergency door after the automatic chair lift is incapacitated in an accident. Drivers learned how to properly evacuate a bus out the emergency exit window.

They had a fire extinguisher demonstration and learned what is included in the on-board first aid kit in the event of passenger injuries or illness.

For the complete article see the 07-27-2010 issue.

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