TriMet, bus manufacturer settle lawsut over fatal collision
TriMet , bus manufacturer settle lawsuit over April 2010 Old Town ...
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Monday, August 12, 2013
TriMet settles suit over fatal bus collision that killed Vancouver woman | The Columbian
TriMet, bus manufacturer settle lawsut over fatal collision
TriMet , bus manufacturer settle lawsuit over April 2010 Old Town ...
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Sandi Day was not negligent. Trimet was negligent.
I have to believe that Trimet had other operators complain about the position and the size of the left mirror.
If Trimet is anything like the agency I worked for when I complained about it, their over-paid and arrogant safely officers dismissed the problems. They are not out in the trenches day after day and can't seem to fathom the danger in having a large left mirror mounted at eye-level of the operator.
Together with having a thick A-pillar and other obstructing features such as the radio handset cradle, make a transit bus unsafe to operate. Yet the safety officers continually deny the fact.
To prevent further deaths from transit buses making left turns, all that has to be done is to:
1. mount the left mirror either much lower or much higher than eye-level
2. make the actual size of the left mirror smaller. A left mirror being physically just a few feet away from the operator's eyes doesn't have to be large. If it was further away, yes, bigger might be more important.
3. mount the radio handset cradle (at the agency I worked for) in some other location than against the A-pillar. There are several other locations that it could be mounted.
4. order buses from manufacturers that understand the importance of having a clear field of vision to the left from the driver's seat which include designing a coach with A-pillars as thin as they can possibly be.
Yes, I went through training classes where I was given instructions to bob-and-weave or rock-and-roll but it is not a natural maneuver and can sometimes be overlooked in certain situations. I retired with a 28-year safety award and consider myself extremely safety conscious but still had two or three very close calls with almost hitting pedestrians when making left turns. Two were within inches of making contact.
The agency I worked for still hasn't addressed all of the above concerns although they have done some retrofitting of left mirrors. Has Trimet done anything to address the left mirror size and position?
I have to believe that this settlement will force New Flyer to at least think about this issue with a bit more importance as they design new coaches and hopefully other bus manufacturers will also take note.
An interesting article from last February that has ties to Portland:
http://articles.philly.com/2013-02-12/news/37041367_1_bus-drivers-septa-officials-three-pedestrians
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