The snow storm gave some local students the day off Wednesday. The Mariposa Unified School District declared a snow day, meaning classes were cancelled.
It's not uncommon to find snow blanketing Mariposa, but Tuesday's storm caught many locals by surprise.
“The cell moved into this area very quickly and dumped huge amounts of snow in a short period of time,” said Aaron Rosander, Superintendent of the Mariposa School District.
The storm came in around 3 p.m., just as students were heading home on buses.
“The drivers are highly trained, they went into snow mode and away we went,” said Rosander.
The buses they drive are far from ordinary.
“We have state of the art buses. They're all equipped with automatic chains,” said Rosander.
With the flip of a switch, two arms mounted on the rear axle swing out and small wheels with chains attached spin like mop heads throwing the links under the tires providing extra traction for the bus.
The system called On-Spot began appearing on Mariposa's buses 10 years. Today, about 75% of its fleet features this automation.
The chain system is not full proof though. Tuesday, a Mariposa bus skidded out and flipped, causing four children to suffer scrapes and bruises.
The superintendent says the heavy snow was just too much to handle.
“Mother nature is a pretty strong force. The buses were out on the road already, so you're at the point of no return,” said Rosander.
Students are scheduled to return to school on Thursday. As for the time they missed Wednesday, that will be made up some time in March.
