School at Oak Valley Elementary School in Tulare County was completely canceled Wednesday after the fog lingered into the afternoon. "We finally saw that it wasn't going to clear and it was just too dangerous to send the buses out so we had to cancel all together," said Superintendent Kerry Beauchaine.
Bus drivers need at least 400 feet of visibility to drive children to school. At ten o'clock Wednesday morning, visibility was less than 200. "We got kids on the bus and to me that's more important than like a load of lumber or freight. If a big truck gets hit it's that, but if a bus gets hit you got little lives," said driver Marvin Sanders.
This is the first foggy season for $12 million dollars worth of fog sensors and cameras along a 13 mile stretch of highway 99 between Tulare and Fresno counties. When activated by fog, messages are automatically sent to electronic signs to alert drivers. So far, the CHP says the system is doing its job. Even so, drivers still have to do their part and slow down. "Keep the safe speed. And that speed may be very low. It might be 10-15 miles per hour if it's that dense. Just be careful out there," said Reyes.
