You’re a school bus driver with a healthy concern for those in your care, even though they’re just in that bus for a little while each day and even though they can be royal pains in your ass sometimes. It’s more likely that this sort of attack will be attempted in the morning, so you’re driving them to school, not home. Either way, to school or home; these two scenarios are the most basic, requiring the fewest people and vehicles with ease of perpetration and escape. Assume that terrorists have done recon on you and your route and that they've rehearsed. Am I giving away plans they'll use against you? No. If bad-guys were to use exactly these plans, then you'll know exactly what to do because I’m going to tell you that as well.
Easiest caper to handle: As you drive into the bus yard after a tough day on the road, a terrorist waves you down and you open the bus door. He points a hand full of lather at you because he's been standing there with a gun he carved out of soap... and it's been raining heavily. You chuckle and drive on. It ain't gonna happen that way.
If they want hostages, here’s what you might see. You’ll be driving down a straight street or road, narrow so you can’t turn around and flee. There will be a car or van alongside the road to your right, off the pavement, with at least one person in it. As you pass that vehicle, the driver may start up the engine a/o pull in behind you. Up ahead you’ll see a vehicle off to the right side but blocking traffic a little bit, slightly on the pavement, probably with the hood up. By the open front driver-side door, maybe in the lane of traffic, will be another person who begins to flag you down. He may wave other vehicles past without saying anything to the drivers as he tries to get you closer. You’ll slow and begin to stop. You may see another person at the rear of the car, maybe looking like he's getting something from the trunk. As you come to a stop so you don't hit the guy who's flagging you down, the person fiddlin' in the trunk might approach from the back of the car and knock on the bus entry door. If you don’t open the door for him right away, he’ll speak to you in a voice that is hard for you to hear, and reply to what you might say by signaling that he can’t hear you so you’ll open the door for him.
Or her. Important point right there. Remember it.
Once the door is open; if he doesn't push into the bus with the other guy right behind, he’ll pause a moment, saying he and his partner have car trouble. Then he’ll pretend he just loves kids and step into the bus just to say hi, moving straight into the passenger area behind you. While you're distracted by this commotion, the other guy will come in the bus door and put a gun in your face. The guy further back with the kids will pull a gun or a pipe bomb and tell them all to sit down and shut up. He might shoot the biggest kid, just to make the point. He might shoot you, for that matter, so you don't pose a threat. If he doesn't, they'll tape your hands and mouth and shove you to the floor several rows toward the back of the bus. Then he'll drive off, with the follow vehicle, the one you drove by on the way in, right behind. About 30 seconds of work. If this scenario develops in front of you on a highway overpass with clover-leaf on/off ramps, then your pucker factor should go way up and you need to take action immediately, which we'll talk about just down the page here.
If they’re going to shoot up the bus in an L-shaped ambush, you might see this: You’re driving down a narrow road and see a vehicle parked off the pavement to your right. There is at least one person inside, and one of them may be looking over his shoulder at you as you approach. You pass that car and see just ahead another one parked on the left side of the street, off the road. There are at least two people in that car, one driver and a passenger and the passenger is probably in the back seat with the window down or being rolled down. Or it could be a truck with one or more people in the truck bed. The folks in this vehicle are probably going to try to stay out of sight so you may only see tops of heads or tips of weapons extending over the window edge/truck bed. Down the road about 20-30 feet is another vehicle, which is in the roadway on the right side again, with the hood maybe up, blocking the road. There’s a man checking under the hood as you’re approaching. As you get closer to him, he steps into the roadway with a gun and shoots into the bus windshield while moving across the street toward the vehicle parked to your left. The car behind you now has stopped about 30' to your rear and at least one of the people in the car shoots into the back of the bus. Because you weren't paying attention, you drove into the kill zone. So, the guys in the car to your left open up on the entire length of the bus with automatic weapons, while the guys in the car behind you shoot into the rear of the passenger compartment, at the gas tank, and at anyone trying to come out the back bus door. The guy who was in front of you, probably the leader, gets in the vehicle to your left and everybody drives away once most of the mags are empty.
So, what are you going to do to prevent or escape either of these attacks?
First, you should do a route recon yourself. Know where the choke-points are, where likely attack spots are and check to see if there are any escape routes. Know the way to hospital and police from everywhere on your route. Know at least one alternate route. You'll probably have a bus radio but you need a cell phone, too. As for the abduction/murder scenarios above, the only thing you need to do is exit the kill zone to safety... un-ass the AO.
Nobody has any business stopping a school bus to seek help for a blown engine or directions to the nearest 7-11. Assume the worst calmly and act decisively.
Do not stop the bus.
Do not stop the bus.
Do not stop the bus.
If no weapons are showing on the men a/o women you're seeing out there, then keep on moving past the disabled vehicle in front of you, past the man a/o woman standing there motioning for you to stop. Run the stop sign/light if you have to but get out of their reach immediately. If you see weapons, then shout for the kids to get down and hang on. If this is suddenly your reality, you don't have time to figure out why they're shooting at you or whether the current administration just pissed them off enough so that the only thing left for them to do is shoot up a bunch of innocent school kids.
If you haven't entered the kill zone yet, it may be possible to turn to the left or right and drive out of the line of fire. That's why you should do a recon yourself. Again, if you haven't entered the kill zone yet, you may be able to stop and back out, running into/over the follow car. If you're not in the kill zone, don't drive into it. Stay brave, know the terrain and do something. Run over shooters if they're in front of you. Duck as much as you can behind the dashboard and side walls, driving forward past the vehicles on the left and right no matter who's shooting what at you. The vehicle in the rear might pursue you for a short distance but they don't want to get caught so they'll probably not pursue for long before they cut and run.
For ramming a blocking vehicle; remember, you need to hit the blocking vehicle and spin it on a pivot point. The best pivot point is usually the wheels under the heaviest part of the vehicle, in the front of the vehicle where the engine is. First, if the situation will permit, begin to slow your vehicle, appearing to stop about 20 – 30 feet in front of the blocking vehicle. Slowing may cause the terrorist to think you are going to stop and surrender. Do not stop your bus, or your car. This stuff works with cars, too. Hold the gearshift lever in place because it could pop out of gear upon impact. If your escape route is to the left of the blocking car, aim your right headlight at the wheel/pivot point that is furthest to the left on the blocking vehicle. If your escape route is to the right of the blocking vehicle, aim your left headlight at the wheel/pivot point that is furthest to the right on the blocking vehicle. Accelerate into the wheel/pivot point on the blocking vehicle at about 10 MPH and continue to drive through to safety. If you’re going too slow at impact or if you stop, you won’t have enough power and momentum to push the other car out of your way. If you are going too fast at impact you risk personal injury and causing mechanical damage to your vehicle, which may disable it. If your vehicle has airbags, ramming might cause them to deploy, depending on a number of variables. Some engines are automatically shut off when an airbag is deployed. If your model shuts down the engine when the airbag is deployed, ramming is probably not an option for you. This tactic can be dangerous but remember that ramming is a final option and if you’re doing it, the alternative was going to be less fun than being smacked in the face by an airbag.
If you see a vehicle coming toward you that appears to be aiming for your bus and there is nothing for you to hide behind and no way you can outrun what appears to you to be a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, turn toward it so that the VBIED doesn’t hit the passenger compartment wherein rests your precious cargo. Try to make the point of impact your engine compartment. The weight and density of the engine block will absorb some of the bomb blast, more than if the bomb was detonated under the passenger compartment, the spot for which the VBIED driver is aiming. If you can't swing the nose around and impact head on, try to slow down/speed up so the VBIED impacts on one of the wheels, preferably the front wheels. This will still keep some of the blast from under the passenger compartment. Most buses have gas tanks between the rails in the overhang between the back axle and the rear of the bus.
If someone appears to be trying to ram from behind, move kids toward the center/front. Yea, even if they have to break the don’t move while the bus is in motion rule. In this case, it may be best to jam on the brakes. If the bomb was going to be command detonated, as opposed to an impact det, the crash of the VBIED into the rear of the bus might knock out the driver or at least disorient him or her so you can get kids out the front door of the bus before the blast. So jam on the brakes and get those kids out, away and down.
Read the caveat page, unerschrocken. I know what I'd do, you have to decide for yourself.
So, why should you, a humble bus driver, read this and decide to learn response tactics and rehearse it mentally and then actually do it if/when the attack happens to you?
Why, oh why?
Because those kids are going to live forever because of what you do in that situation.
Or die.
