Winter is coming, and that means local school bus lines are preparing for some tough driving conditions.
David Landreth, the owner of Andersonville Bus Lines, said they are prepared for another busy winter weather season.
With 14 years of experience, he knows which roads are already going to be causing trouble.
“So although the main roads may be cleared, there’s still going to be the back roads that will be ice-covered and snow-covered,” Landreth said.
Tree coverage is to blame for the ice and snow-covered roads.
“In the summertime, you can go into the shade and it will be 10 to 15 degrees cooler. Well, same thing in the wintertime. If it’s 30 degrees in the shade, it’s going to be around 20. It never gets enough sun or heat to start the melting process,” Landreth said.
Landreth showed us one of his bus routes full of windy, narrow, shaded roads, with lots of blind curves. These were roads that were tough to drive on in a regular compact car, never mind a school bus.
If a bus can’t go down a route because of the weather, the driver notifies the school and the student will get an excused absence. Landreth said the most important thing is safety -- and sometimes that means patience from the bus line and fellow drivers.
More on what to expect and how to prepare for winter weather: