Safety and C-Tran, Tri-Met

I've treaded lightly on the topic since the tragic accident last April where five pedestrians were injured and two were killed.

Perhaps it is finally a good time to comment.
It shouldn't take people dying for transit agencies to react and take safety seriously. Even if nobody dies, safety should be just as important as that bus getting to each stop on time. Too often both C-Tran and Tri-Met are guilty of this. After the C-Tran bus hit and killed that pedestrian near the Parkrose Transit Center years ago, did C-Tran conduct any sort of safety review? After a C-Tran bus was involved in a fatal accident with a pickup truck on Andresen Road a few years ago did C-Tran conduct any sort of safety review? After that 2008 FTA study came out regarding bus-pedestrian collisions in intersections did C-Tran do any sort of safety review? The study found that 60% of bus-pedestrian collisions at intersections involved turning buses and that an astounding 70% of those collisions were all involving a left-hand turn! That sounds like a trend that should have been looked at in 2008.

I was on a C-Tran bus in 2008 a few months after the report came out. At the time C-Tran was detouring their express buses across the Broadway Bridge from the Rose Quarter and down Broadway. This was a sunny, summer day, the bus was driving down Broadway, we were southbound on Broadway when the bus was faced with a sharp left-hand turn onto Everett; making the sharp turn from Broadway, required the bus to sweep across adjoining traffic lanes. Just as we made the turn and got to the crosswalk there were three pedestrians right in front of us. The driver had to slam her brakes and it took evasive action by the pedestrians to not get hit by the bus. The poor driver was visibly shaken for not only the rest of the trip through downtown Portland but all the way to Fisher's Landing Transit Center. She had followed C-Tran's training procedures for such turns and it wasn't enough. I was looking out the front window at the exact time of the turn, I didn't see the pedestrians until they were right in front of us. A couple of blind spots in the form of pillars had blocked my view of them. When I first heard about last April's accident, my incident from two years before came immediately to mind. The location and certain aspects were so similar it literally sent a chill down my spine.

I'm skeptical the C-Tran bus I was on that July 2008 day and that Tri-Met bus last April were the only two buses who have had similar experiences on Broadway. Maybe if management of both transit agencies had addressed incidents like I was witness to in 2008 when coach operators would report them, those two pedestrians would still be alive today.

So far as I am aware C-Tran management has never done anything to address the dangers of left-hand turns. In fact, as I pointed out in my previous post, I've seen them add left-hand turns.

Last May I asked Lynn Halsey, C-Tran's Director of Operations what sort of safety reviews they undertake and if they had done anything differently in light of the Tri-Met tragedy. His reply was "On a regular basis, C-Tran reviews our safety procedures". That seemed rather vague and when I pressed him for additional details he said that "periodically we will send out bulletins to our operators". When I asked if anything had been done specifically in light of the Tri-Met accident, he gave me a flat out "No". To me it comes off as the transit agency wants the coach operator to take most of the responsibility and blame when something goes wrong. Yes, the bus driver is responsible because they are where the rubber meets the road but many times they are simply following the procedures of the agency they are working for. If they don't follow those procedures, if a supervisor sees them, they are subject to discipline by the agency.
In the case of Sandi Day, at least one of the items she was found guilty of in court, sweeping across other lanes to make the narrow turn with the large bus-that's what Tri-Met trained her to do!

Regular readers know I've had my issues with the ATU but I will give the ATU complete credit and wish that the management of both C-Tran and Tri-Met would listen to the union when it comes to safety issues. For years the ATU has complained to Tri-Met about mirror location and other blind spots. The agency has largely ignored these complaints. If you are ever in downtown Portland some evening, waiting to go home and have a few minutes before your bus home arrives, I urge you to cross 5th Avenue and compare the mirror location between a C-Tran bus and Tri-Met bus. It is noticeably different. I'm not saying the C-Tran mirrors are in the perfect place but it looks better for the drivers ability to see than the Tri-Met mirrors. The ATU has complained for many years about the numerous blind spots and nothing has changed.
Come on C-Tran, Tri-Met, do something about blind spots, change your training, take safety more seriously! Hiring a "safety director" wont change anything if you don't change certain long standing policies/complaints. Listen to your coach operators or union representatives when they make you aware of safety issues.

Always remember, when you have a flawed training procedure it's not the operations director, the training staff, the CEO or anyone else in management who have to live with the sometimes tragic consequences of those flawed procedures, it's the poor coach operator.