When the winners were announced at the 33rd annual International
Bus Drivers Safety Competition, Brent Carman, driver for the Morgan
Hill School District had lost.
When the winners were announced at the 33rd annual International Bus Drivers Safety Competition, Brent Carman, driver for the Morgan Hill School District had lost. While thinking about what to tell his sponsors, he picked up his score card only to find out there was a mistake and he in fact won the competition.
Carman has been a school bus driver for the past 18 years and competing for 16 of those years. While he has won many local competitions, this was the second time that he won the international championships in as many years.
The competition has two parts.
The first part is the written exam testing knowledge of safety and rules of the road. After the exam is the vehicle inspection and a driving course with 10 obstacles that must be maneuvered through, including parking, stopping at a rail road track and making a pick up. Points are taken off if a driver fails to follow safety rules or stop the bus in a certain range.
The written exam was held in a hotel, while the driving portion was at Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets.
In all, 99 from 34 states and two Canadian Provinces who won state or province competitions competed on July 19 and 20.
Carman, won first place in the Transit Bus category, one of three categories offered. Transit bus is a large, flat bus that resembles city buses. The other two are the Conventional and Small Bus categories. The Conventional is run with traditional school buses and the Small Bus is run with buses that hold 15 to 20 passengers.
When the winners were announced, there was a little confusion. The competition is scored out of 700 points and when the scores were read, they were in the 400s. Carman scored 630 last year and in the other categories, the winners scored higher than 550.
“Most everybody in there were looking at each other because they all thought the scores were very low,” said Carman. “When the second place score was read, the guy next to me took my plaque that we all received for participating and said that he would hold it until after I received my trophy.”
His name was not read, instead a driver from Philadelphia with a score of 443 was announced. He said that he was disappointed and in shock. With fifth place score announced at 402, Carman said that his only thoughts were on his sponsors.
“The (California Association of School Transportation Officials) paid my way to New York; a trip that was between $1,000 and $1,300,” said Carman. “How was I going to explain to them that I could not score within almost 299 points of the possible 700 points total?”
After the scores were read, Carman got the chance to look at his score sheet and it read 604, 161 points higher than the winner who was announced. The score sheet said that he was the winner, and an announcement was made later that there was a mistake, but by then most of the people had left.
Carman’s team has placed the highest for the past five years, and won the state championships four times. They then went on to the international competition where they won once before. Both of Carman’s teammates also drive for the MHUSD. He says that he owes his success to his teammates Adolph Valles and Raul Suares.
Carman says that he could not have paid for most of the competitions were it not for his sponsors including CATSO, the transportation safety organization in California, Make it Mine Embroidery and the maintenance yard in Morgan Hill.
