City’s bus drivers are in mourning
The city’s bus drivers are in mourning for Sylvain Ferland, the driver killed in a crash Tuesday evening. According to CTV, the union has no records of any other driver being killed on the job. Ferland’s wife and sister are also transit drivers.
Tux 09:41 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
I feel for the man, and his family, and Kate feel free to delete this if it’s not the time or place… but I have definitely noticed a decrease in driving technique quality in the STM in recent years. They speed more, they jam on the accelerator and on the brakes way too violently, like they’re driving a small car. More than once I have seen people thrown from their seats on sharp turns… is the quality of STM driving decreasing, is the training different these days, or is it just me?
Marc 10:06 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
I’ve been going through that area for over 30 years. Aggressive behavior from all parties is nothing new.
Kate 10:18 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
Tux, I think it’s also the physical buses. The ones we have now have a certain kind of balance and also rather touchy brakes. But I think it’s also confirmation bias. I take the bus quite often, and now and then I’ll find myself noticing a driver has a lead foot on the brake pedal and the standing passengers are lurching around as the bus stops and starts. But not all the time.
I think the fact this is the first driver anyone can remember ever being in a fatal accident on the job – and there’s no indication it was his fault – is some testament to the STM drivers being pretty good. Also I checked out the route of the 196 bus – where the accident took place, the route is all wiggly, the bus turning every couple of corners. There’s no long straightaway where a driver could’ve picked up speed.
Tux 10:33 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
Maybe it is in large part the bus hardware… I never had that gut-slamming hang-on-for-dear-life feeling in any of the pre-Novabuses. At the same time, there are some drivers who know how to handle these buses because it’s not every ride that’s like that… just most of them. (I’d say 9 times out of 10 I feel like the driver is speeding up too fast and not allowing enough lead time for gentle stops)
Bill Binns 10:47 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
Unless the bus outright ran a red light or stop sign (which seems unlikely for a 20+ year veteran and someone who drives the same route over and over), I simply don’t see how this could have been the busdrivers fault. How fast does a 1.5 ton BMW need to be travelling to flip over a 20 ton bus? The Gazette article said the engine of the BMW was inside the cars passenger compartment. They also quoted cops and paramedics and other bus drivers as saying they had never seen anything like it.
Both front seat passengers of the BMW with major head injuries (one of them dead). All late model BMW’s have at least dual airbags and likely side curtain bags as well. This all sounds like a very high speed crash. I would not be surprised to hear that the BMW had been travelling between 130 and 160 KPH.
walkerp 10:51 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
I would not want to be a bus driver. It’s bad enough driving a regular car.
Bill Binns 11:07 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
Doesn’t the bus driver wear a seatbelt? I hardly ever ride busses here but seem to remember the drivers wearing belts. If so, it’s so weird that the only person wearing a belt on a bus full of people is the one that died.
Kate 13:24 on 2012/08/16 Permalink
I believe the seatbelt rule is fairly recent and I don’t recall noticing any driver wearing one, although I wasn’t checking. Now maybe that will change.