Four-time school bus driver safety winner David Bachelder has fun competing but takes

the job seriously.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer
SALEM
The state’s most skillful school bus driver for conventional buses doesn’t even have his own bus route.

David Bachelder, who has won the state’s school bus driver safety contest four times – including this year – and placed sixth in international competition in 1999, is actually a full-time mechanic for SAD 58 at the district’s Salem bus garage.

Still, as one of the district’s substitute drivers, the Phillips resident gets to drive a school bus quite a bit. His driving and his safety-first attitude have earned trips to Illinois, South Carolina and Washington, D.C., to compete.

If a regular driver calls in sick or is on vacation, Bachelder gets behind the steering wheel and fills in. That happens nearly every day, something he doesn’t mind a bit. He likes the buses; he likes the kids.

SAD 58 is a sprawling district that covers a huge portion of Franklin County. It’s also tricky driving: the roads wind and weave over the hills and through the valleys. In winter, with a heavy pummeling of snow and cold temperatures, drivers face perfect conditions for black ice.

“It gets pretty hairy around here sometimes,” Bachelder said.

The weather changes but not Bachelder’s emphasis on safety. “We may be late, but we’ll always get ’em home. Always have, anyway.”

Next week is School Bus Safety Week, but bus drivers compete in the summer in the skills-based competition at the annual school bus safety convention at Sugarloaf USA in Carrabassett Valley. Drivers of both conventional and flat-nosed buses compete.

Eighteen drivers, three from each of six Maine regional competitions, vie for state conventional bus honors. A winner is chosen based on a driving test that includes parallel parking, right-hand turns, railroad crossings and more.

“I don’t think I am better than any other driver. I just happen to be lucky and win it each time, I guess,” he said, brushing off his success.

Winners go on to the Bus Driver International Safety Competition, sponsored by the National Association of Pupil Transportation, where a field of drivers – mostly from the United States and Canada – compete through a 100-question written examination and a driving test.

The written test is “quite tricky,” Bachelder said, and the driving test judges are “real fussy.” His sixth-place finish in South Carolina is his best in three tries.

The trip to the nationals, including ground transportation, hotel, meals and airfare, is free, courtesy of the Maine Association of Pupil Transportation. Competitors from Maine are also given $100 in spending money.

Bachelder will be competing again next summer, thanks to his most recent state win in July. At the competitions, he said he gets nervous but enjoys the free trip and the challenge. “It’s lots of fun. I have a ball going out there,” he said.

Raised in Newry and then Stratton, Bachelder has lived in Phillips for the past 35 years with his wife, Cheryl. He used to drive a tractor trailer for CAT Lumber but for years has worked as a bus mechanic for the school system.

Bachelder said his true loves are cars and kids.

He’s always had a thing for tinkering on cars and trucks. Buses are no different under the hood, really, Bachelder said, just the parts are bigger, and there is more room to move around.

And as for the kids, “I try to speak to every one of them when they get on.” That’s his secret for keeping them in their seats and smiling.

“It’s a job. You have to be safe,” Bachelder said. “It’s pretty precious cargo we’re hauling here.”

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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