Edward C. Hope, Peter Pan Bus Lines Springfield, MA

Everett L. “Andy” Anderson, Peter Pan Bus Lines, Springfield, MA

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.

They join 2008 inaugural inductee Aubrey Hutchings, K-T Contract Services, Elko, NV, in the three-million-mile circle of safe drivers.

Hope is the first motorcoach operator in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to drive three million accident-free miles. Anderson completed his 36 accident-free years in May 2008.

Both safe drivers have earned respect and recognition from their company as recipients of the coveted Peter C. Picknelly Sr. Founder’s Award for outstanding performance, along with awards from the National Safety Council.

Hope began his career as an intercity coach driver for Continental Trailways primarily along the New York-Boston corridor for the better part of 18 years and joined Peter Pan in 1986 when the company acquired the New England division.

Anderson credits caution, training, experience and luck for his hitting the three million mark. He continues to drive everywhere the job takes him and says he enjoys the view from behind the wheel every day. Originally from Tuskegee, AL, he has driven charters and line runs primarily in the heavily congested Northeast corridor where his celebrity passengers included the late Senator Ted Kennedy. BR

High standards for the chosen few
The National Safety Council says fewer than 200 drivers ever achieve three million miles of accident-free driving according to 50 years of record keeping. Three million miles add up roughly to 36 years behind the wheel — or as some have noted: six runs to the moon and back. 5Star Specialty Programs, Melbourne, FL, supports the premise that safe driving over time requires high standards in every facet of the job from driver behavior and passenger awareness to exacting vehicle maintenance. BR

PSTA operator Don Dillon says he was only trying to help when he responded quickly to save a house from going up in flames.

PSTA driver saves home from fire
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. Convinced the owners were not home, he grabbed a garden hose and headed for the burning tree, spraying the tree as units from the St. Petersburg Police and Fire departments arrived and quickly finished the job. Officers assured Dillon had he not acted so quickly the house could have burned.

A few minutes after the fire was out, the homeowner driving in from Tampa could not believe her eyes when she realized all the flashing lights were at her house. Informed of Dillon’s effort, she now has a new hero.

“I don’t know about that,” says Dillon. “I’m just glad I could help.”

Lancer Insurance Company regional manager, Alex Biro (left) and Virginia Coach owner Jim Counselman present Virginia Coach driver Lorenzo Moody, Sr. (right) with a commemorative plaque and cash award for his help with a stricken fellow driver.

Lancer Insurance awards Virginia first responder

Lorenzo Moody Sr., a driver for Virginia Coach , Purcellville, VA, acted quickly and decisively to help to save the life of a fellow coach driver. This past spring during a stop at Monticello, Charlottesville, VA, Moody was showing Robert Garth, a driver for Spirit Coach, Madison, AL, the inside of his coach when without warning Garth collapsed, claiming he could not move his legs.

Moody and another driver quickly stabilized the stricken driver and remained with him until the medical team from the University of Virginia Hospital arrived to counteract what appeared to be symptoms of a stroke.

Lancer Insurance Company, which insures both Virginia Coach and Spirit Coach, recently honored Moody for his life-saving actions with a plaque and cash reward given at the Virginia Coach headquarters.

Jason Pollard proved himself unflappable under pressure when he seized the moment in a bizarre series of events.

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.

“I could tell immediately the expression on her face was not like she had just run out of gas,” says Pollard. “I felt if I did not stop something bad would happen.”

He immediately intervened to remove her from harm’s way as her attacker raged on, attempting to ram two separate vehicles into Pollard’s bus.

Pollard says the combination of comprehensive driver training and his own natural instincts just kicked in and allowed him to take control of this surreal situation.

Left: Jason Pollard proved himself unflappable under pressure when he seized the moment in a bizarre series of events.

He stopped to let the distressed woman on as the man she said had abducted her ran toward the bus. Pollard took off, watching in the rearview mirror as he radioed Hartford Operations with his situation and location. He then saw a black vehicle pull up on his left-hand side, race across the highway and stop on the off-ramp to prevent Pollard from exiting.

“I realized this was the woman’s assailant coming after both of us,” he says. “Now we were both in extreme danger.”

The vehicle sped ahead and a few moments later Pollard saw headlights coming back down the interstate directly toward him. He tried to veer out of the way, but the car clipped the front left corner of the bus bumper, spun out of control and ended up in a ditch on the left side of the road. The goon had stolen the car of another good samaritan who had stopped to offer assistance.

Pollard continued to calmly report the events to supervisor Ramonda Tutson back at dispatch and tried to keep the woman on the bus as calm as possible. Tutson instructed Pollard to proceed to Exit 69 where the state police would be waiting.

Not about to give up the chase, the assailant resumed his pursuit, passing the bus on the right-hand side and speeding ahead.

He pulled the car to the left side of the highway just over a hill, made a U-turn and again headed back toward the oncoming bus.

“When I saw those headlights coming at me one more time, I realized this chase was not over,” says Pollard. “All I could do was pull into the breakdown lane to get out of his way.” Pollard says the assailant swerved to avoid a pickup truck, luckily missing him, but crashed into the tractor-trailer traveling directly behind the bus.

At that point, Pollard was able to exit the highway safely and connect with the state police. Troopers took the woman for medical observation.

The assailant survived his crash, but before officers could take him into custody, they first had to extricate him from the stolen car wedged underneath the tractor-trailer.

CTTRANSIT general manager David A. Lee and the entire community commended Pollard on his split-second decision-making and calm demeanor that allowed him to keep a clear head and focus on what he needed to do to reach safety. In fact, Lee created a special General Manager’s Award to honor Pollard, who he says did everything right in a very short period of time.

“This entire sequence of events only lasted nine minutes in real time,” says Pollard. “But it felt like hours.” Lee says Pollard probably saved the woman’s life. Pollard says he was simply doing his job.

By David Hubbard

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.

With human lives on board, the implications for highly skilled and conscientious drivers and safe operations are great. Business owners cannot ignore the increased risk associated with increased ridership, and must address the issues with a heightened focus on risk management strategy. The drivers on the front line hold the keys to lower insurance premiums. While recruitment programs can help attract reliable drivers, they also require the backing of a well-defined risk management plan. The first lesson is that the most successful risk management program takes time to develop, and the company will rarely see results immediately. Nonetheless, no one can overstate the importance of implementing a comprehensive risk management strategy and maintaining it effectively.

What a difference a driver makes

A November 2008 article from the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, AZ,  underscores the excessive amount of money any type of transportation operation can waste over time on sub-par employees in critical situations.

In this isolated case, a school bus driver ended up costing the Tucson Unified School District  $4.5M as the result of aggressive driving habits. The story recounts a litany of issues including the driver’s score of  65 out of 100 on a defensive driving test, in which 80 percent is considered passing. This driver is still at the wheel despite frequent complaint calls. The district even extended his probationary period an additional three months to a total of nine months due to concerns about his driving, not to mention a personal file filled with tickets for minor accidents and traffic infractions.

This driver’s record culminates with his running down a teacher while making an illegal left turn with a bus loaded with students. Financially and personally, the impact of his actions proved catastrophic.

Besides the obvious implications of this horrific scene, the blatant warning signs that littered his record are almost more disturbing. This situation further illuminates the importance to continually train and monitor the performance of all employees. Roughly 95 percent of vehicular accidents are the result of driver behaviors, while billions of dollars have gone to research to improve road and vehicle safety. Not enough is being done to direct attention to the root cause of the majority of accidents that occur annually.

The time has come for greater vigilance in employee selection.

Role designation is a crucial component

As with the case in Arizona, a risk management system may not be altogether lacking, but it can certainly breakdown. Each individual in the chain plays a specific and crucial role in administering safety policies, and everyone shares in keeping one another and the system in check.

The driver in Tucson is a prime example. He disregarded the rules of the road. Management seemingly ignored signs that indicated he was an unfit employee, and for too long his behavior went unchecked.

When company standards break down and the complaints start coming, training and testing may not be enough. It may signal sterner action that does rule out dismissal.  Apathy is its own transgression. When disaster strikes, the correct and immediate response is as paramount as all the measures to avoid risk in the first place. A pre-emptive approach requires the realization that at some point something will happen, a loss will occur, and a thorough, logistical plan to deal with the inevitable is essential.

Employee selection is an ongoing, not a one time deal.  A standard hiring criteria and application protocol must include reference checks, a review of MVRs, a road test and orientation.

However, it is just as crucial to implement programs to continually train and re-educate employee policies and practices that include review periods and spell out any impending disciplinary actions.

A transportation company that keeps risk management at the forefront deserves skilled, competent and conscientious drivers. On the same hand, those drivers deserve management’s attention to the steps necessary for a safe and pleasant working environment.

Hiring and retaining top drivers is critical in transportation risk management
At the core, it is the drivers who keep society moving, as passengers rely on their skills and professionalism to move them both quickly and safely. 5Star Specialty Programs understands the extend to which all matters concerning vehicle drivers, from recruiting and hiring, background checks and monitoring to ongoing training, tip the scales in the risk management strategy.

5Star Specialty Programs commends the service and professionalism of all bus and motorcoach operators, and is especially proud to sponsor the BUSRide Safe Driver Hall of Fame, which continues to honor the best in the business.