Over the weekend, as a result of a video shared on social media, the Lakewood Police Department was alerted to a dangerous incident in which a young student was nearly struck by a school bus that had just dropped him off.
“It appears that the bus did not have functioning safety equipment, specifically a safety arm, designed to prevent potential tragedies caused by an obstructed view,” police said.
“Further investigation, conducted by Officer Alexander Guzman of the Lakewood Police Department’s Traffic Safety Unit, revealed that the unreported incident took place around 4:15 pm on February 14, 2019. Officer Guzman was able to identify the neighborhood in the video and subsequently the 7-year-old student’s home off Chestnut Street. Upon speaking with the child’s father, he confirmed that the event was not reported to law enforcement as he wished to address the matter through the school identified as Toras Yisroel in Lakewood.”
Officer Guzman has met with school officials who are cooperating with law enforcement. The bus has been taken out of service until all mandated repairs have been made. In addition, charges against the operator of the bus are pending at this time.
[Note: Although TLS received this video last week, it was not published, as we don’t publish “forwarded” items, or items just “floating around” social media with no source or permission from the owner of the content.]
I feel bad for the operator, but I don’t. Maybe whoever did share the video prevented a child from being killed. If a child was indeed killed two days later, by that same bus and operater, only then does it become regrettable for not sharing. I do believe the best would be that someone calls the operators boss and threatens to share unless appropriate action is taken.
My point is, loshon Hora is terrible and destroys lives. Whoever did share that footage probably did not think much of the repercussions it will have on someone livelihood. However, it permissible in some situations and we should not be staying silent at all.times.
you would not be saying this if the boy was killed
Pikuach nefesh trumps Shabbos, and certainly trumps Lashon Hara. There is no place here to talk about hurting someone’s livelihood when that person’s livelihood is putting children in danger. In that case his livelihood should be hurt.
if that was your child you wouldn t be caying that where is this loson hara?
A similar thing happened with my daughter about 4 weeks ago. with her, the driver started pulling away BEFORE she was completely off the bus, causing her to lose her balance. Luckily, he stopped short, and prevented her from going under the bus.
I would urge the police to give this drver a hefty fine.
I have witnessed this behavior many times. Drivers should be rquired to watch 10 hours of accident videos before being allowed to brive our precious children.
untill you ask an actual Rabbi please dont post your own p’sak regarding L”h. You dont get to decide these things.
hoiw is it loshon hara even if the driver is shomer shabbos all buses t need to be checked regularily to make sure all safety measures are in place
How many “incedents” need to happen for the drivers to learn their lesson???