Scary Bus Ride

Between Sub-Freshman and Junior year I rode the bus every day to and from school. Generally, I had good experiences every time I rode the bus, however, one experience tainted my bus ride home forever.

I got on the bus and went to the most comfortable seat, below the heater. The frost outside caused the windows to fog up and the loud clank of people knocking ice off their feet was ever constant. The bus ride was a blur, with a podcast in my ear and my hands in my pockets I was more than content. I gathered my things as my stop arrived. I noticed another man preparing to get off at the same time. The man was wearing glasses has a dirty shirt and seemed significantly overweight. I thought nothing of it.  As the bus slowed down I leaned against the momentum of the bus making sure my feet didn’t slide over the wet, slick ground. I pushed the back doors open and mumbled “thank you” under my breath. I jumped over a patch of snow and landed on the sidewalk. The night before the snow plows pushed all the fresh powdery snow to the side of the road, clearing them for all the morning commuters. But the snow piles hid a dangerous threat. The ice that was under the snow was not visible or made any signs it was there just a silent piece of dangerous ground. I got off the bus and with pure luck avoided the ice, however, the disheveled man was not so lucky. As he jumped over the snowbank his feet flew out from under him and be began to fall backward. I noticed all of this with the corner of my eye. I turned around just in time to see the back of his head hit the doorsill of the bus. His glasses flew off and broke. He fell down the snow bank and his head rested peacefully under the bus only two feet from the wheels which prepared to depart to the next stop. As I ran to the man I yelled to the bus driver not to move. I tried to pull the man from the wheels, but the snow and his weight made it impossible. The wheels began to turn. After only half a rotation they stopped and bus driver jumped out. The man was out cold. I tried to find his glasses but they had shattered on impact. I heard the honking of cars behind the bus and later the sirens of the ambulance as it approached. Luckily the woman whose car was stuck behind the bus was a CPR instructor and allowed me to step away from the scene.

After the ambulance arrived I prepared to go home, I filled out an incident report with the CU-MTD, not waiting to see what happened to the man hoping he was ok. This bus ride is perhaps one of my strongest memories and every winter as I get off the bus I remember that crazy day.