Blas’ Blind Spot
What the mayor can do to make city buses safer
WORDS cannot express the grief and anger of someone who’s experienced the sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one — particularly a child. And when anyone dies as a result of a bus accident, it’s only natural to blame the driver.
But no one hates a bus accident more than a bus driver.
Operators involved in fatal incidents are greatly impacted, routinely seeking professional help to cope with the experience. Many are so devastated that they never get behind the wheel again.
The Amalgamated Transit Union is committed to achieving Mayor de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” goal of eliminating all pedestrian deaths and will continue to work with all responsible parties toward that end. We have enough experience with this issue, however, to know that simply “throwing the book” at drivers, regardless of their culpability, will do nothing to correct the problems that lead to accidents in the first place.
There has been a startling change in the engineering of our buses in the last 50 years. The National Academy of Sciences identified the problem in 2008, describing the large blind spots built into buses today that weren’t there years ago:
“Apillars” — the vertical column between the driver’sside windshield and window — and the pillars’ adjoining sideview mirror often create a footlong obstacle in drivers’ field of vision that prevents them from seeing pedestrians on their left.
Tall fare boxes and other obsta cles block drivers from seeing pedestrians on their right.
Manufacturers of buses built before 1970 provided drivers with a wide field of vision that they don’t today. Consequently, our goal for “Vision Zero” might be called “Zero Blind Spots in Our Vision.” True bus safety demands it. Transit agencies across the country — Cleveland, Philadelphia and Madison, Wis. — have acknowledged this problem, and courts have even exonerated drivers involved in fatal accidents when “moving blind spots” are clearly involved.
In Portland, Ore., the transit agency and bus manufacturer paid a settlement to the families of two victims who were killed and three who were injured in a crosswalk accident.
In addition to coping with bus-design flaws, drivers have to meet insane computerized timetables or face discipline, regardless of the difficulties they encounter on the road. These punishing schedules leave little or no time for recuperation or bathroom breaks between runs.
Today, overworked and distracted drivers are pushed to meet impossible schedules on vehicles that create significant blind spots in their field of vision. It is a testament to drivers’ professionalism and concern for the public that so few accidents occur.
We know that is no comfort to the relatives and friends of those who have lost their lives in these tragic incidents. But, it does suggest practical, effective ways we can reduce, and hopefully eliminate, these terrible occurrences.
We must retrofit the mirrors or retire current buses that create blind spots in drivers’ vision.
New York City accounts for a third of all transit trips in the country, and the MTA has an opportunity to set the standard for safe buses nationwide by ensuring that new buses don’t have these obstacles.
What has the MTA done so far to address these dangerous blind spots? Asked bus drivers to twist their bodies like a pretzel while driving to see around the blind spots, in order to make sure there’s no pedestrian in the crosswalk. Talk about dangerous. It’s time for the MTA to make changes to buses with these blind spots that it already owns, and to stop buying buses with these blind spots going forward.
The MTA should also look into employing modern technology that can signal drivers when they are close to an obstacle. There are also audio systems that have been implemented in buses — in Cleveland, for example — that warn pedestrians when a bus is approaching.
We acknowledge that this needs to be a team effort. We all need to do a better job of educating the public about how it can work with us to create a culture of safety on our roads.
ATU members support the goals of “Vision Zero.” After all, we have family members on our city’s streets, too. We are willing to work with the mayor, the MTA and all responsible groups to end all injury and death involving public transit.