Thursday, May 12th, 2022.
The day started off like any other. Bus route 1308 arrived in the parking lot at 7:42 am and opened its doors to students. And, as usual, the students swarmed inside the bus. Before 7:45 am the bus had closed its doors and began to travel towards Tilden, as usual. By around 7:50 am, it became apparent that something was wrong.
It all started with the first voice, which came from the very back of the bus. What had been only a few calm voices, very quickly, became a chorus of panic. (At this time, I was at the very front of the bus so do note my point of view.) Eventually, I turned my head to the back of the bus to see what the commotion was. And what I saw, was an abundance of steam in the back.
"Get out of the bus." -The Route 1308 bus driver.
"Open the windows!" multiple students yelled, and we did so. It was around now when two students came up to the bus driver and told him "There's something leaking back there, pull over!" Most likely unaware of how bad the issue had become, he said "It's fine." and they went back to their seats. The steam was now advancing up the bus, along with panic. People around the steam were yelling out of fear and people later described the smell as "A terrible, strong odor." I got a whiff of it too, and it smelt curiously similar to syrup. The leaking situation had gotten so bad that a person in a pick-up truck rolled down his window to tell the bus driver that "Something is leaking out of your bus." The bus driver, having been stopped at a traffic light, moved the bus and then pulled over. At this point, everyone on the bus was yelling out in panic. "Alright," he said. "Get out of the bus."
Everyone scrambled for the main exit. As we got out I noticed some kind of fluid that had made its way to the front of the bus. As soon as everyone left the bus, the driver went to examine the problem. Cars were building up behind the bus, but eventually, they decided it was fine to go around it. The bus driver came out of the bus and requested a backup bus to pick up the students. Fortunately, there was one nearby. Bus route 1320, which had a similar route path to ours, came and picked us up. Unfortunately, there were already a lot of students on that bus. Bus 1308 students were crammed into the new bus, and by the end of it around 10 students were left outside of a beyond-full bus route 1320. After a few minutes, the bus closed its doors and started to leave even with the students still outside. I'm assuming that either another backup bus was called, or bus 1320 came back for them later, but regardless I do believe that all of them made it to school.
What the problem was:
After the school day was over, the same bus that had broken down picked us up. Later, the bus driver stood up and said "This morning we had a coolant leak," and then asked, "Is anyone hurt or uncomfortable?" And there you have it, it was a coolant leak. For those who don't know, coolant is also known as anti-freeze. The purpose of coolant is to prevent the engine from freezing or overheating. Without it, an engine could break down fairly quickly. Coolant is also flammable.
If you have any questions or concerns email me at 175785@mcpsmd.net, thanks for reading.
Author: Jackson Hammack.
yikes