| from: | KM | ||
| to: | "cj@thiscrazytrain.com" | ||
| date: | Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 7:22 PM | ||
| subject: | TTC excitement |
Hi CJ!
So I wanted to write you and tell you about my adventure on the bus last Thursday (March 7). I'm sure you get lots of stories from your readers and have heard about the crazy people on the TTC. But this story I just HAD the tell.
It all started at Kipling station waiting for the 191 to Humber College. There was this guy acting...weird. He kept walking in the middle of the road, raising his arms and yelling nonsense. He kept going up in people's faces and staring then walking away. I stood there hoping he wouldn't be getting on my bus- and oh! He did! While everyone was piling out of the bus he tried to get on (the bus driver trying to tell him to wait his turn which of course didn't work).
We finally get on the bus and start our journey north. Then this guy starts sneezing/ coughing obnoxious and loud. So I was like "jeeze I'm glad this guy isn't sitting beside me!" (Strategically choosing my seat when I got on!) Then he stands up puts his feet on the seat, keeps cough-sneezing, and starts to yell. He then starts to swing from the yellow bars! At this point we were on the highway and at this point I was just really uncomfortable so I got up to tell the bus driver (y'know in case he HADN'T noticed). I asked him to do something about the guy at the next stop and sat back down.
The guy kept up with this behaviour but started to shove his phone in people's faces, playing music on his phone, dancing in the middle of the bus and yelling at the top of his lungs! At this point the bus driver asked him to stop because he was making too much noise (really that's all???). He calmed down for a minute but then persisted to jump on the seats, swinging from the bars and yelling! By the time I got off at Humber College he was planting his feet on the windows and hanging on to the top bar. When I was getting off the bus I informed the driver that this was COMPLETELY unacceptable and that something should have been done (I know he couldn't have confronted the guy because obviously he was unstable) which is when the driver SAYS he called it in.
Either way, when I got to work I called TTC to talk to their customer service/ tell my story/ ask what their protocol is supposed to be. The woman who I spoke with (very nice by the way! She should be a driver...) Informed me that a driver will call it in and usually arrange for the police or security to meet them at a future stop to remove the individual. Now, I'm not sure if this happened or if he called it in like he told me he did, but I didn't see anything. I gave a detailed description of the crazy man (I had about 20 minutes or so to gather details).
She collected my description and my info and said they might call me back after she passed on my complaint. I wanted to make sure that they knew what the guy looked like in case something happened to a future passenger or the driver.
Anyways, what I think bothered me the MOST was that I was the ONLY person that did anything when everyone was quite obviously uncomfortable! It upsets me that nobody else was concerned or concerned enough to say anything!
- K
That's my story.. Sorry it was so long and sorry it got sent in 2 emails, but I really hope that everyone else can stand up and say something when they see something like this happening.
7 comments:
By her (KM's) own admission, she says the driver did his job by calling it in and telling the guy to settle down, but he still gets a customer service complaint.
He's not a cop. He can't touch the guy, he can't force the guy into submission. He can't forcibly remove the guy. It's a little hard to do anything while operating the bus on a busy highway at 80km/h+.
If he does anything, like stopping the bus on the side of the road and getting out of his seat to confront the guy, he may get suspended/fired if it goes badly. He certainly wouldn't get the ttc's support if he got assaulted after confronting the guy. He definitely would get in serious trouble for stopping on the side of a highway.
He did what he is supposed to do, observe and report. Most importantly, he maintained safe control of the bus in what is probably an even more stressful situation for him than that lady who complained about it.
If you're so annoyed by somebody else, if something somebody else is doing causes you so much grief, why don't you confront them and see what happens. Why don't you use your cellphone to call the cops (against the hta for a driver to do that while operating a vehicle and against ttc policy to use while on duty in the seat or on the bus).
Exactly!
yeah, I'm not sure what K expects people to do. He wasn't harming anyone, or damaging property so best thing to do is ignore him. I've seen all sorts of crazy on the subway and I've worked with the mentally ill, confrontation will only make the situation worse.
The solution is to get our government to take mental illness seriously and properly fund the resources to help them.
So while my initial intention was to complain about the driver, after I was told by the customer service rep what their protocol was it turned into me calling and telling them what the guy looked like in case something happened to a passenger or the driver after I got off.
I am also fairly certain I acknowledged the fact that I realized the driver couldn't confront the guy because he was unstable. I was more surprised that the protocol of meeting a police officer or security guard was not done.
And I didn't feel like confronting the guy because personally, I didn't feel like getting hurt as who knows what the guy had on him.
The problem was he COULD have harmed someone (swinging off the bus rails and jumping on seats).
KM, the driver did his job. Why would you complain about him? In that situation, what did you want the driver to do? You have to remember that the bus was on the highway, can't really pull on the shoulder for anything other than an emergency or breakdown.
Did you notice the crazy guy waited until the bus was on the highway to start acting up?
What about all those other people on the bus that had someplace to go, that paid good money to get there? If the guy isn't threatening anybody, that's what happens, somebody gets sent to meet up with the bus. Usually crazy guy will exit sometime before that point.
Don't blame the bus driver. Too many stories of drivers being assaulted.
The drivers put up with so much shit it's ridiculous. Just this morning people were yelling at the streetcar driver and blaming her for lines being down. There should be a minimum intelligence level required before you can board public transit.
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