Extreme Bus Rides

To protect Maggie in her wheelchair there are two belts that come up between her legs fasten on each side to keep her hips in place, and a chest harness with four buckles. Once those are secure, there is a lap belt fastens across her like a regular seat belt. Once Maggie is loaded onto the bus, the chair is strapped down to the floor of the bus and a strap is fastened around her and buckled about mid way down the wheel of her chair.


Maggie can easily remove the bottom buckles of the chest harness and the lap belt. She cannot reach the back buckles on the harness, but she is able to lift it off over her head, and does so frequently. One of the adults in her life re buckles those things about 40 times a day. She is able to but does not mess with the hip straps. I think she knows those are really holding her in place and self-preservation kicks in.

Perhaps we have been watching too much Shaun White or other daring athletes in the Olympics. Maggie is exhibiting some daredevil tactics of her own. She is extending her mastery over seatbelts to the school bus.

The driver is not amused.

She cannot reach the bus straps on the bottom of the chair, but Maggie has recently mastered the art of getting the other bus strap undone. The school nurse says that Maggie sits quietly with her hand at her side. Eventually they hear a “click”, the strap is off, and Maggie is beaming. The driver has to stop to get it back on.

Today they tried loading her on the other side of the bus because it is doubtful she could coordinate that with her right hand. Maggie is not only left handed, but, because of the nature of her cerebral palsy, the entire left side of her body is stronger than the right.

Moving her will fix it for a while, but my girlie is very persistent. And she loves to live on the edge. I guess it should not surprise me. Her brothers are involved in dangerous sports, downhill biking and rugby, respectively, and this is Maggie’s version of that.

Dude.