Dysfunctional City (D.C.) Employs The Nation's Most Deadly METRO DRIVERS!
God'sLittleAnus
apologies for hiring and RETAINING people who repeatedly kill and maim
the city's residents and visitors.
But, actually, it is really not surprising. The crooked politicians
that control D.C.'s tax-supported purse-strings are still sorting out
the whereabouts of the $50 million stolen from -- the Office of
Taxation!
REALISTICALLY, it's really way past time the city was either:
a) Placed, again, under federal receivership, or
b) Placed under martial law until the reasons for and sources of its
frightening lawlessness can be analyzed and abated.
*** CAUTION ***
**** PLEASE DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH AWAITING THESE OUTCOMES ****
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"Unsafe at Any Speed"
"What disqualifies someone from driving a Metrobus? Not much."
Editorial
Saturday, September 19, 2009
CARLA A. PROCTOR should not have been driving a Metrobus on Sept. 3,
the day she struck Amanda Mahnke, a 30-year-old jogger, at the corner
of Connecticut and Florida avenues Northwest. She should not have been
behind the wheel of a bus at any time in the past few years, either.
In fact, no one with Ms. Proctor's driving record, which is studded
with serious on- and off-duty accidents, has any business driving a
Metrobus. That she was doing so points to a lapse in Metro policies
and procedures.
A review of the record as reported by The Post's James Hohmann
suggests that Ms. Proctor was a menace on the roads, with scant regard
for both safety and legality.
-- In 2003, she stepped out of a bus she had been driving in Southeast
to check a malfunctioning door; the bus then rolled down a hill,
damaging seven vehicles and the bus. That led to lawsuits that forced
Metro to pay at least $27,000 in damages.
-- A few months later, while driving her personal vehicle off-duty,
Ms. Proctor turned in front of oncoming traffic. A stolen car smashed
into her vehicle, and the collision sent her car through the window of
a fast-food restaurant and prompted two women who were eating there to
sue her. The case was settled out of court on undisclosed terms.
-- In 2004, Metro was hauled into court again on Ms. Proctor's account
after she crashed a bus into the rear of a parked car in Northwest,
injuring a 72-year-old bus passenger. The details of Metro's
settlement with the injured passenger were not released.
-- In January of this year, a police officer charged her with driving
an unregistered, uninsured car with out-of-date tags. For those
alleged infractions, she faces a trial this month.
Metro's lenient policy permits drivers four on-the-job "preventable-
minor"or three "preventable-major" accidents in a 365-day period
before they are fired (although "gross negligence" can trigger
immediate dismissal). By contrast, Los Angeles bus drivers are subject
to firing after any three avoidable accidents in an 18-month span, and
they can be dismissed immediately due to "negligence or grievous
behavior," according to L.A.'s transit authority. As for off-duty
accidents, Metrobus drivers are supposed to report them to
supervisors, although there seems to be no enforcement mechanism to
compel the reporting. Those policies, which are the product of a 1996
labor agreement, need to be renegotiated and toughened.
Plenty of people have checkered driving histories, some worse than Ms.
Proctor's. That shouldn't make them social outcasts. But it should
disqualify them from driving a bus.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/18/AR2009091803373.html