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![](http://busride.com/wp-content/themes/Advanced-Newspaper1392/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2010/06/safe.jpg&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1")
Two drivers from Peter Pan Bus Lines, Springfield, MA, Edward C. Hope and Everett L. Anderson representing Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1512, are the 2009 inductees into the BUSRide Driver Hall of Fame presented by 5Star Products.
![](http://busride.com/wp-content/themes/Advanced-Newspaper1392/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2010/06/image001.jpg&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1")
One stormy day in June in Pinellas County, FL, PSTA bus driver Don Dillon drove by a large palm tree burning after a lightning strike next to a home and immediately pulled over to report the fire to his dispatch. He then ran and knocked on the door, hopped the fence and banged on the back windows.
![](http://busride.com/wp-content/themes/Advanced-Newspaper1392/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2010/06/backseat-0509.jpg&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1")
Jason Pollard, a quick thinking operator for Connecticut Transit (CTTRANSIT), Hartford, CT, and a team of supervisors faced a bizarre scene an agency could never anticipate. Deadheading an empty bus to his route start one early morning in late January, Pollard encountered a man and a woman in the breakdown lane running toward him. As she approached, he realized the woman was trying to escape a frenzied attacker.
![](http://busride.com/wp-content/themes/Advanced-Newspaper1392/timthumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2010/06/hallof-fame-generic.jpg&h=&q=90&w=90&h=65&zc=1")
Hiring and retaining highly qualified drivers is among an operator’s greatest challenges. With increased ridership and greater focus on public transportation, the pressure to find safe and responsible drivers becomes more crucial as bus operations experience further expansion, but it is not necessarily risky business.
