FROM RIVER CITY NEWS NETWORK (www.facebook.com/...)
Women's March Protesters Held Up by Bus Driver RCNN Special Report for January 21, 2017
Some local ladies who were participating in today’s Women’s March in Washington DC were afraid to board their chartered bus after the driver posted disparaging comments about her passengers on Facebook and was then unprepared to depart on time.
S&S Coach Bus Driver Donna Hinderer’s comments have subsequently been removed from Facebook. However, several RCNN readers caught screenshots and sent them in for publication.
(Yes, we triple checked, her name really is Hinderer – as in one who obstructs or delays progress.)
The bus was scheduled for departure at 1:30 am. However, passengers arrived to find the battery dead. This happened after the bus driver was caught on Facebook discussing how to sabotage her passengers for political purposes.
“A friend of mine bought a bus ticket from Marietta to DC to participate in the Women's March from S&S Coach. At about 1:30 this morning she boarded her bus to leave, only to find out the battery was dead,” explained one concerned reader. “By 4:30 am the bus had still not left. At this point the bus driver's Facebook profile was found, on which there was a post from Tuesday asking what to do if she had a busload of protesters. She” lol'ed” her way through people advising her to drop them off in the middle of bikers, take them to the people handing out free joints, drive over rumble strips the whole way there, etc. But she also said that sabotaging the serpentine belt would ruin the trip as it would be at least 24 hours of roadside service. Obviously she was not mechanically skilled enough for this, so instead she allegedly drained the battery on purpose to delay the trip, causing those on the bus to find alternative transportation or simply not go (the bus tickets were $100 each). She has since deleted her OP on her Facebook and other posts involving transvestite Obamas and slavery not being a bad thing.”
The controversy began at 7:14 pm on Monday evening when Hinderer posted the following statement: “OK Family & Friends, I’m on my way to DC starting tomorrow. Question??? . . . if I have a bus load of protesters, What should I do?”
While some of Hinderer’s friends admonish her to “pray and do your best”, others suggest incapacitating the bus so that the protesters could not participate. One commenter said: “tell your company it conflicts with your religion and you can’t do it.” Others suggest she leave her passengers in DC. There were dozens of such comments in response to the driver’s post. It was enough to make the peaceful protesters hesitant to board the bus.
“We didn't feel safe getting on a bus with someone who joked about harming us,” explained Kylie Schlemmer. “We were supposed to leave Marietta on the bus at 130 am and arrive in DC at 830 am. By the time she got the bus running, it was 4 00am. We stood outside for three hours waiting for the bus to get repaired, we were not allowed on the bus. At 4 00am we decided to drive ourselves. We didn't arrive to the march until noon, well after the speeches and morning activities. I have no idea what time the women on the bus arrived, but it was at some point in the afternoon. These were $105 tickets and we are hoping to get refunded. There were a few women who did not feel safe to get on the bus, and were too tired by 400 am to drive, so they just went home and missed the March completely.”
Passengers say they cannot prove that she ran the battery dead, however Hinderer’s comments showed a decided lack of professionalism with regards to their safety.
“Whether or not she purposefully sabotaged our bus, the fact that a bus driver would post online and discuss potential ways to threaten us and our trip is absolutely a terrible thing to do,” Schlemmer said. “She tried her darndest to keep us from DC, but we overcame.”
If anyone is interested I can provide the screenshots of her Facebook discussion with her friends. Adding to the story above (since I know a person that was on the bus) she apparently told the women that the overnight lights were left on “accidentally”, draining the battery. Several of the passengers simply went home after standing around for 3 hours, some stayed and the bus eventually got them to DC (after noon), and some drove there from Marietta, Ohio, arriving around noon and missing most of the speeches and such.
***EDIT***
TO BE CLEAR, the company mentioned in the article is S&S Coach out of Ohio, a charter bus company — not to be confused with S&S Coach Company, a manufacturer of hearses and buses. The website for the charter company is sscoach.com