By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A set of traffic cones becomes a last-minute obstacle course for bus driver Dave Webster.

The cones gradually narrow College Street to one lane just before it meets Campus Avenue – a perfect example of the diminishing clearance test, Webster says. He maintains the speed of No. 15, the bus he drives for Western Maine Transit, slipping alongside the dozen or so cones with just inches to spare.

One, two, three: They whiz past No. 15’s closed door. And then, one tips over and falls.

“I noticed it before,” he says. “It was sticking out a little bit from the others.”

That kind of mistake might have cost him five points in the competition, the annual bus “roadeo” sponsored by the Maine Department of Transportation. It could mean the difference between going home with a trophy and just going home.

Fortunately for Webster, it’s the kind of mistake he rarely makes.

For the second year running, Webster has topped the list of Maine bus drivers, defeating 26 others from around the state at the annual MDOT Bus/Van Roadeo.

He’ll represent Maine later this month at the National Roadeo in St. Louis. It will be his second time at the nationals, and he hopes last year’s experience will help him. He finished a disappointing 22nd out of 60 in Seattle.

“I’m hoping for at least a top 10, but we’ll see,” he said. “I was a rookie and I made some stupid mistakes.”

In the meantime, he practices while he totes WMT’s clients around the Twin Cities. He maneuvers around parked cars, through crowded lots and past traffic cones, honing his skills.

“I’m the sort of person that looks forward to construction work,” he said.

Contestants at the Maine roadeo start off with a written test – 50 true-false questions and 50 multiple choice. Then they move on to the driving skills competition, six events worth 50 points each:

• The Serpentine, maneuvering the bus through a slalom course of cones.

• Right Hand Reverse, backing into and out of a rectangle of cones without knocking any over.

• Forward Offset, driving around an obstacle.

• Passenger Stop, getting to within six inches of a curb without disturbing any nearby cones.

• Diminishing Clearance, passing through a narrowing gauntlet of cones at 20 mph.

• Judgment Stop, coming to a final rest smoothly within six inches of a target cone.

Drivers are judged on how close they come, how many cones they disturb or knock over and how smoothly they perform. They also have to complete all six events within seven minutes.

Finally, they’re judged on how quickly and firmly they can load and secure a wheelchair onto the bus.

“I do that a lot,” Webster said. “My chairs don’t move once I’ve tied them down.”

The nationals use the same obstacles and add two more: a Left Hand Reverse and a judged bus inspection.

Webster said his job with WMT gives him an edge over most other drivers. As a demand driver, he doesn’t have a set route. He picks up and delivers mostly handicapped clients, taking them from nursing homes and personal residences to doctors visits, daily care-centers and schools.

“I don’t think I’d like to drive the same route day in and day out,” he said.

A case in point was the right-hand reverse, in last month’s contest. None of the daily bus drivers could back up the bus without taking out several of the cones. Webster was the only one to demonstrate that skill successfully.

“Most of them don’t ever have to back up their bus, until the roadeo” he said. “I do it four of five times a day.”

He said he plans to spend the next few weeks polishing his skills. He’ll use the lines in the parking lot at the Auburn Wal-Mart to practice his judgment stops and might even set up a skills course at some point.

“This time of year, I really start to think about practicing,” he said. “Everything starts to look like a skills course.”