Trimess
Sunday, February 12, 2012
ANOTHER DAY FOR A SUPERVISOR
Hey Al. Well I had a little excitement tonight on MAX. Myself and 2
other Supervisors were checking fares between Gateway and the PDX. We
switched cars at Cascade Station heading towards Gateway. I ran across a
guy that had expired MAX tickets and transfers. I could tell he usually
pays. He looked but could not locate his day ticket that he told me he
bought. The guy even showed me on his smart phone that there was an
entry from his bank. He was very calm at all times. I was just handing
him his citation and he instantly snapped and yelled "I don't have the
money for this ticket!" The he proceded to vilently strike the left side
of his head into the side window. After the third strike the window
broke. Every strike after that the damage just got worse. The window was
now very loose and bulged out 1.5 inches. The guy then calmed back down
as though nothing had happened and stated over and over how sorry he
was. The police were call and they came code 3. The guy was arrested and
the train had to be taken out of service.
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2 comments:
If the guy could prove that he had just purchased a fare, why write him up? If you even knew he usually pays?
It's no different than the police officer doing a highway patrol. You don't go after the guy that is doing a couple miles over the limit. Legally, you COULD write the ticket, but you don't. Let's say you find someone going 10 over and since it's a slow day you decide to pull them over. Upon reaching them (and they promptly pull over) you find someone who is sick and throws up on side of the road. The driver has a long and spotless driving record. Do you write them a ticket? Probably not.
I want TriMet fares to be enforced as much as the next guy but at the end of the day we're arguing over $2 or $3. At my work I'm not going to argue over that. If a customer wants a late fee waived...I'm probably going to do it because it'll cost me more money justifying why I won't do it. If the customer wants to argue over a day or two of service, same deal. It's the abusive customer - the one that never pays their bills, the one that got the power turned off, the one that said "But, but, I moved out three months ago!" and didn't think to call the power company. The woman that complained that we shut off the power to a commercial building she owned (but was vacant) because there was power consumption for 18 months with no customer of record (and thus no revenue).
And...what exactly is the policy for a Transit Supervisor who rides WES and comes across a cash rider in Wilsonville? Are you going to deny that person a ride because it is impossible to purchase a cash fare in Wilsonville? And extremely impractical in Tualatin as well as Hall/Nimbus? And difficult in Tigard? Public transit is Public, you can't deny service because of someone's inability to obtain a credit/debit card.
I know the supervisor, he's a great guy. The man was obviously unstable but I agree with Erik that this shoulda never happened.
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