july 15 1976 chowchilla california a day that the town would like to forget forever yet remains a part of its history at around 4 p.m school bus driver ed ray was driving 26 students of dairyland elementary school home from a summer class trip to the chouchilla fairground swimming pool ray was described as a humble rancher with a humble day job stocky about 55 years old a guy you would not want to pick a fight with a guy who works with his hands and doesn't talk much on this particular day ed's bus was rowdy but the
kids all loved him for his patience and reliability the kids were all loud and excited after just having spent the afternoon swimming some of them were even singing but when the bus turns onto avenue 21 ray sees a white dodge van blocking the road with its door open he tries to weave around the empty van when a guy in overalls with a pantyhose covering his face jumps out in front of the bus with a revolver the man walks to the driver's side window and asks ed with no intimidation in his voice would you open the
door please ed opens it two more identically dressed figures jump in one with a rifle which is quickly pointed at ed everybody goes to the back of the bus the one without a rifle starts to drive and the one with the revolver hops in the van to follow them they drive about a mile and parked the bus in a bamboo thicket the entire ride was apparently so silent that it added to the pure horror of it the bus was hidden near the chowchilla river and 12 kids were ushered into the white van that was following
the bus ray and the other 14 kids got into the back of the second van that was waiting at the location this one green there was a partition separating the driver's seat to the back of the van and all the windows were sealed ed and all the kids sat in the backs of these vans for 11 whole hours in the pitch black and extreme heats all the while scared for their lives not knowing what was going to happen next some of the older kids started to sing songs to try to lighten the incredibly horrible setting
and make the younger kids feel better songs like if you're happy and you know it meanwhile back in town it only took 15 minutes after the bus not showing up that parents began to wonder what was going on that's how punctual ed always was within the hour the missing bus was being talked about on the local news stations parents helped police by tracing the route the bus usually took and by that evening they found the abandoned bus within hours 30 fbi agents arrived on the scene and an intense investigation was underway to find the kids
and ed late that night the vans finally arrive at a rock quarry 100 miles away in livermore 3 30 in the morning at which point ed had been awake for 24 hours the back doors of the van swing open and two guys are waiting ed is the first one out he's handed a flashlight and then told to strip and then go down a hole with a ladder in it above ground roll calls being taken for the children and their names are written as they're made to leave the bus one by one then they're stripped and
sent to join ed down the ladder into what was referred to as the hull which turned out to be an old moving van which had been placed in a large dugout hole 12 feet underground ed immediately worried that the ceiling would cave in or that they'd suffocate however there were two air shafts hoses that ran above ground to a tree there were also some mattresses on the ground and a pathetic amount of necessities wonder bread peanut butter potato chips water jugs and some holes carved for toilets after all the kids were inside one of the
captors said we'll be back for you then a steel plate slid over the entrance and was weighted down by something they of course begged to be let out and many of the younger children screamed then they heard repeated thumps on top of the van they couldn't see it but their captors were shoveling dirt on top of the van burying them alive panic ensued in the trailer when it was realized what was happening ed tried his best to keep everybody calm ed and michael marshall the oldest kid in the group who was 14 started to push
at the lid to try and open it but it was pointless so by now ed instructed everyone to eat and get some rest 12 hours later the food was already consumed and the ventilation system that was keeping the van cool stopped working and the hot july air started to fill the tight space on top of that the roof of the van started to cave in and add new time was very limited the survivors now adults recount that around this time as the walls and ceiling of the van were caving in and there was no food
left that they were starting to realize they wouldn't likely make it out of this alive ed and michael started to pile up the mattresses in the trailer to get to the roof which had been covered with a heavy sheet of metal and weighted down with two 100 pound industrial batteries after hours of effort ray and michael wedged the lid open with a piece of wood and moved the batteries they then dug away the remainder of the debris block in the entrance 16 hours after they had entered the van the group emerged and walked to the
quarry's guard shack where a security guard called the police ed and the children were brought to a nearby jail where they were fed and interviewed by police so the captors were three men frederick niwal woods james schoenfeld and his brother richard frederick's family owned the quarry that the van was buried at the three men were finding themselves in financial struggles so they plan to hijack the bus and demand a 5 million ransom to release the group the men would flee when they saw the group escaped though but they were found after a two-week manhunt they
were found guilty and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole richard schoenfeld was released in 2012 and james schoenfeld was paroled on august 7 2015. frederick woods was denied parole 15 times because he owned the quarry however in march of this year he was granted parole as well rightfully so people of chowchilla and people around the world were sickened at the fact that the three men who committed this kind of monstrous act could ever roam the streets again if michael and ed hadn't stepped up and dug the group out of that van they likely
would not have survived ed ray died in 91 in may 17th of 2012 but he is still to this day remembered as a hero what you just heard may perhaps be the most well known near tragedy to happen to a school bus full of children however it's a big world and there are unfortunately many other horrific events that don't end up on the news then 14 year old donald who wished to have his last name left out was a student at a high school in virginia and a member of the school's band the bus driver's
name was robert but everyone called him bob like ed ray he also seemed to enjoy his job and enjoyed the company of the students he drove albeit these students were a little older on october 20th of 1995 bob was driving a class of band students to and from their field trip donald was in this bus the festival they went to ended late at night around 10 and the drive back to the school where the students would be dropped off was a 45 minute drive away the bus was on route 58 a highway that runs through
virginia given the rural setting there were basically no other cars on the road but even when one car was relatively close to the back of the bus it wasn't any cause for alarm at first but when the car would start to tailgate the bus instead of simply going around it especially when the bus and the car were the only vehicles in sight the students near the back of the bus started to realize and discuss amongst themselves how strange it was bob the bus driver would switch into the left lane to get the driver off his
ass and all the kids watched as the car floored it past the bus in the right lane some kids shouting things out the windows to which the chaperone on the bus told the kids to knock it off donald recalls thinking the car was gone and it was just some aggressive late night driver when suddenly the bus slammed on the brakes so hard that everybody was slightly lifted from their seats and there was an ear piercing shriek from the brakes the bus came to a halt on the middle of the highway and bob told everyone to
remain calm the bus went into reverse for a few moments then back in drive to another halt bob shouted at everybody on board the bus to keep quiet and don't panic and hearing those words made donald along with his friends he was sitting with and every other student on the bus whisper amongst themselves nervously there was shouting from outside the bus from multiple men's voices then the bus doors opened and two men wearing black pullover masks armed with handguns came on board yelling at everyone on the bus to shut up in response to a few
students near the front screaming one of the men with the guns announced to the entire bus to empty their wallets of all cash and take any jewelry off and to give it to them they went row to row with their guns pointed at the kids as each student took out their wallets and placed whatever small amounts of money broke high school students could be carrying in their wallets into the plastic bag the guy was holding and the girls would take off their jewelry some students would scream as the gun was pointed in their faces which
would be a natural reaction for some donald described the moment he had a gun pointed at his head at 14 as emotionally traumatizing that he felt his entire existence would end if he moved or looked at the guy the wrong way the men didn't even make it to the back of the bus before they decided to leave in a hurry most likely panicked that other cars would pass by and stop the car flirted away down route 58 with its lights off its license plates had been covered indicating it was a planned attack if the guns
and masks weren't already indication enough everyone on board made it home okay just most of the students as well as bob in the chaperone had been robbed unfortunately bus robberies are a common thing though and while most probably aren't caught on video what you're about to see was a school bus traveling along the n4 in witbank one friday night this past february was attacked by armed robbers the teachers did not know it at the time but the robbers had laid out rocks on the highway intending to cause damage to vehicles so that the drivers would
stop and the robbers could steal from them at gunpoint the bus was carrying four teachers and the driver there were no pupils in the vehicle they were traveling back to the school after an athletics meeting when they hit the rocks and ruptured a tire there were three robbers two were armed with guns and one with a knife the assailant stole cell phones cash jewelry and a smart watch the bus driver was hit in the face with a gun and sustained a minor draw injury but that was the only injury the robbers then fled the scene
and eventually a tow truck later pulled over to assist one of the teachers borrowed the tow truck driver's phone and called her fiance who notified the authorities police soon arrived and an investigation began the robbers have still not been identified since buses can carry a lot of people depending on the intent of the people looking to target them they may see extra dollar signs just based on the amount of people on board alone even though you don't often hear about these things happening on the news they do happen in such situations where people are armed
with guns it's always best to just comply with their orders you
