Narrow Escape ~ Safely Evacuated, a photo from Washington, West

Photographer's Note

I am transportation director for a school district here in the Yakima Valley of Washington State. I posted another shot of this incident on the "sister-site" Treklens.

I received a radio call from the driver of this bus stating on Tuesday that he had just been run off the road by another vehicle. The other driver did not stop. My arrival at the scene with camera in hand, is what you see pictured here.

The older students helped the younger ones evacuate the bus in an orderly, calm manner while the driver dispatched for help.

The bus was very close to rolling into the water filled irrigation canal. The rear outer dual tire is literally off the ground.

I have all the students in our school district go through emergency bus evacuation drills 3 times each year. The driver praised all of these students for doing everything as they should have. He said they exited the bus on the left (up-side) emergency exit just as they practice in our drills.

I believe there were guardian angels keeping the bus from going over the embankment. As it was, there was nobody hurt, just lots of excitement among the children. Something they will undoubtedly never forget. Me either....

God's best to you (and my buses), Tim

electro76, Kenny10pin, gg01, bertolucci, Jeppe, nwoehnl, rabani, strangiato, bethel, peter1892, xuaxo has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Liora (1857) 2004-04-22 13:26

what an incredible photo and story. I'm just glad to read that it ended with everybody safe and sound...

electro76 (460) 2004-04-22 13:29

C'est vraiment tr鋊 surprenant que l'autobus ne se soit pas retrouv� � l'eau... Nice shot!!!

Gbutler (772) 2004-04-22 13:57

Tim-one word...WOW. Great photo of a pretty scary moment! Glad no one was hurt and everyone got out safely!

joergen115 (2246) 2004-04-22 15:04

Oh no!!! What a Bus.Great shot.And clear Photo.

gg01 (355) 2004-04-22 16:05

Quel 廦uilibre pour le bus, c'est incroyable qu'il soit rest� dans cette position.
Pas de bless�, tant mieux.

---
Which balance for the bus, it's incredible remained in this position. No the casualty, so much better.

bertolucci (14052) 2004-04-22 18:18

Excellent docu shot with one of your trade mark yellow busses at center stage. Your portrayed the action and dynamism of this scene very well. Great pic and great note Tim.

Jeppe (18654) 2004-04-24 2:23

Somehow this shot more dramatic then you TL version - the moving persons add extra to the photo and gives a action shot out of this static situation -

Glad nobody got hurt by this accident.

Thanks for sharing Tim.

nwoehnl (122) 2004-04-25 11:27

Another great shot of this incredible scene, Tim. I agree with Jeppe - the presence of more children in this view of the dangerously tilted bus adds on to the drama. Great journalism piece. Glad that the safety drills paid off and everybody emerged from the incident well.

rabani (9645) 2004-04-26 2:31

For a transportation director, you sure know more than your job description. Your photography is good as well as your accompanying note.

That bus is pretty precarious by the angle you took it. With the students milling around, it is a real life photojournalistic material. Picture which attracts as well as inform.

Don't you just feel glad and good, you got the students into the evacuation bit. I am glad that you did. If my children were in that bus, at least not just the guardian angel to thank for, but someone who had made them know what to do, in a bad situation.

Piotr (0) 2004-04-29 16:50

What a dramatic story! great note, You are good journalist Tim, well done !

[2]

strangiato (10) 2004-05-12 14:09

Good photo and story. Well done.

joseelias (0) 2004-06-02 8:49

Excelent decisive moment shot! Very well composed with all that action, the bus in a diagonal creating a dinamic image and also capturing all the surroundings.

Good colors and clarity.

At least someone do this drills... In Portugal no one ever do this kind of things...

mdchachi (1612) 2004-06-18 9:35

This could have been a disaster, glad nobody was hurt and you got a nice photojournalistic shot out of it. It looks like you blurred all the visible faces in the shot which is somewhat disturbing (and not necessary if legality is your concern).

Nile_sid (129) 2004-09-09 2:25

situation is terrible. But photograph is very good! It is excellent!

bethel (359) 2006-08-03 9:06

Hi Tim,
Glad to hear no-one got hurt! Great photo and story.

Elizabeth

peter1892 (1681) 2006-08-03 9:11

This is a good piece of photojournalism, it wouldn't look out of place on the front page a of a newspaper! I see that you've blurred out the faces of the children in some cases (i.e. where they could be seen) that's fair enough in my opinion.

Thanksfully, everyone was safe, the actions of all involved are to be praised. I hope you find the idiot who ran the bus off the road, he/she deserves some kind of punishment!

kajspice (4542) 2006-08-04 9:20

Blimey...I hear all too often of bus accidents, carrying lots of school children. In the UK, it is increasingly difficult to get the correct permissions to take kids on trips, due to health and safety... A good documentory picture - I'm sure you could have sold this to one of the local newspapers...

xuaxo (6854) 2006-10-07 7:28

Ok, I'm reading the news. Your note, the photo. Perfect match.
F

powerlolo (0) 2007-01-05 15:43

Hey, i'm collecting pictures os bus accident since mine in bolivia... http://powerlolo.free.fr/bolivie/bus.html thanks for sharing this precious moment