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Morning Roundup: After the Snowfall Edition
The Washington Post's James Hohmann digs into the driving record of Carla Proctor, the Metrobus driver who was behind the wheel of the bus that struck 30-year-old jogger Amanda Mahnke on Sept. 3. Proctor had two previous on-the-job accidents: one in 2004, when she crashed a Metrobus into the back of a parked vehicle on the 1300 block of Wisconsin Ave. NW, and another in 2003, when she allegedly failed to properly apply a brake before she exited a bus to inspect a faulty door. That bus "rolled down a hill and struck a car, setting off a chain of crashes that damaged seven vehicles as well as the bus."
The story also points to a couple of incidents involving Proctor's personal vehicles, including a 2003 crash that sounds like it was by no means necessarily her fault but saw her car smash into a Wendy's in Oxon Hill, and a spate of tickets from earlier this year related to driving an unregistered vehicle.
None of these incidents would have precluded Proctor from continuing to do her job as a Metrobus driver. The standard at WMATA is four "preventable-minor" accidents or three "preventable-major" accidents on the job within a 365 day period, according to the Post. And considering that the worst (and the majority) of these incidents took place five or more years ago, it's pretty tough to make an argument on this evidence alone that Proctor didn't belong behind the wheel of that bus. Nearly five years accident-free? For a professional driver, that's fairly decent.
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They're allowed four major accidents within a year? That's crazy. Who's running this place? Major League Baseball?
Their union negotiated 4 accidents and 2 McGruff junkpunches per year.
To their defense, if you drive a big f'ing bus 2000 hours a year, accidents will happen.
Exactly. This doesn't seem like an unreasonable driving record considering the circumstances.
Are you kidding me?!
I am talking about the 2 fender benders not being an indication of her being an unsafe driver. Not the current accident.
WMATA drivers consistently come in last at the annual Bus Roadeo held by the Nat'l Public Trans Assn. While it's just a fun event, it's really sad how completely lame the WMATA drivers are. Whether the regulations are comparable to other places it not as important as whether the drivers consider that the 'allowable' number of incidents. Like considering the speed limit to be the min speed instead of the MAX speed.
sophiagrrl: wow, i wasn't aware that wmata fared so poorly on the roadeo circuit. what kind of events are we talking about here?
Thx to the YouTubes:
2009">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX-T0EUHORk">2009 40' Seattle, WA winning Run
The 2010 APTA Bus Roadeo (I said Nat'l but it's the American Public Trans Assn) is in Cleveland,">http://www.apta.com/mc/conferences/allother/2010roadeo/Pages/default.aspx">Cleveland, Oh. Sites says: The Operator Competition includes events such as judgment stops, turning, and clearing obstacles. And yes, I too have wondered why APTA hasn't cashed in on the huge transit-geek crowd that would pay to see these events!
Damn tags!
hey, at least your links work, and aren't just underlined text!
Okay, where is this bus "roadeo," and where can I go to watch it? I'd rather see this on the Speed channel at 3 AM than lawnmower racing.
Completely unacceptable. WMATA needs to seriously needs to step up its hiring and employee performance requirements.
What's WMATA's mass transit disaster threshold that merits termination? A half-dozen vehicular homicides? A bus grill so caked with dead bodies you have to burn the corpses off? Silver Streak? The Big Bus?
nobody can be perfect. though the number of accidents this driver has seems troubling, i'd like to see how her record compares with other wmata drivers before passing any type of judgment.
I get the impression that requiring an accident-free driving record for bus drivers would only result in bus transit grinding to a halt from lack of drivers. Kinda like hiring cops with better than an 8th grade education and no more than five felony arrests on their rap sheet.
such hyperbole, come on now, two minor accidents does not equate to "8th grade education, 5 felonies"
Before a judgment I would hope they would come to some sort of conclusion as to fault in this particular instance. Even though she has had two job related accidents since 2003, her driving record does not affect whether Amanda Mahnke darted into an intersection without looking.
+1
I don't think WMATA drivers should be the gold standard for comparisons of driver comptetence. There doesn't seem to be much oversight, and I suspect they're hiring some individuals who would be rejected for similar jobs. I'd like to see Ms. Proctor and other WMATA drivers benchmarked against other cities' public transit drivers as well as commercial drivers.
dodgecitydave: sure, it would be nice to compare wmata driver stats to those of other cities, but i fear that we'd be heading down a 'apples and oranges' path at that point. at least we know that all wmata drivers are supposed to be starting from the same base of expectations.
I appreciate you putting it in perspective. I read the story and shook my head, but in this case it seems like she's not particularly an unsafe driver.
If she was turning left, she was probably at fault in the accident where she crashed into the Wendy's. However, it's unlikely that her conduct was willfully negligent or grossly negligent.
To me, her driving a personal vehicle without it being registered or insured shows an extreme lack of good judgement. It will be interesting to see if she reported that violation to her supervisors as she was supposed to do. It will also be interesting to see what the traffic camera video reveals as far as the cause of the accident.
true, bethesdaist. i guess i was focusing on the number of accidents, versus the record of other drivers. the unregistered vehicle is just pure negligence on her part, pretty much unattributable to anyone else.
Not sure about Maryland law, but in a lot of states your liscence is suspended for driving without insurance....which would be bad if driving is your job.
Not necessarily. I've been trying for the past two months to renew my vehicle registration-- diligently going to the DMV every Saturday, calling various agencies during the week, writing letters and filling our forms, etc. Because of an error in the DMV's system that they are blaming on Fairfax County (who is, of course, blaming it on the DMV), I cannot get my registration renewed despite no wrongdoing on my part. I've fought this for so long that my registration is about to expire. Of course, once it does expire I will not drive my car anywhere, but some people just can't give up a car that easily depending on their circumstances.
I'm just saying that it is possible to have an unregistered vehicle due to someone else's negligence.
engineergirl: oh, i agree with you entirely. but, you've said you'll do the right thing. you won't drive if your registration expires. sure, that would suck for you, and yes, for many people, that would be a hell of a hardship. but, regardless of the blame, you just shouldn't drive an unregistered car. the risks are too great. if she did that, the blame falls squarely on her.
I've been to that Wendy's in Oxon Hill and to be perfectly honest I've felt like ramming it more than once ... where the h*ll are my biggie fries?
Speaking of ramming a Wendy's, I'm really digging the way the Japanese have re-imagined Dave Thomas' creation. (Skanky but SFW).
I'm not sure what to say. It is true that if you drive a vehicle as your full-time job, accidents will likely happen. Especially accidents where you are not at-fault. However, these incidents are troubling because they do seem to be the operators fault. They show carelessness at best and negligence at worst. The Wendy's incident apparently started when she turned left across traffic and got hit. Sounds murky because the striking car may have been stolen, but still.
I understand that some fender-benders might occur, but I think perhaps the line should be drawn a bit closer towards strict safety.
The two accidents were fender benders.
I was a labor lawyer for 10 years, and am 100% certain that a termination based on her previous accidents would not be upheld. And 50% certain that if they fire her now she will get her job back with back pay.
Labor arbitrators are chosen based on their record. SO it is critical that they have a 50-50 record which means that there is absolutely no rationale for their decisions. I once proposed that we just flip a coin instead of arbitrate, because it's so pointless.
Examples --Temrinations reversed: a guy who went to smoke and left a valve open causing a 30,000 gallon oil spill; a guy who drove a gas tanker ontop a bridge in New York, which had to be rebuilt at a cost of 20M+; a guy who stabbed a coworker; a guy who hid in a container to sleep, slept thruogh the continaer being driven away and woke up in a different state (thus missing his entire safety-sensitive shift). Terminations upheld - accidentally charged a meal on his corporate card; tripped on a curb and broke his ankle (which was an OSHA recordable and a terminable offense); went on a porn site whitehouse.com (and he claimed he was trying to get inauguration tickets).....I could go on and on. I quit because the whoile practice was so pointless.
Just another reason why I think all lawyers are evil minions of Satan! I can't believe the stuff people get away with, and yet all those poor people who get fired for stupid stuff--that's not justice it's criminal!
Except that these arbitration are put in place specifically to avoid actual lawyer-heavy litigation. In the end, they are cheaper than a real trial. But I guess we get what we pay for.
Yikes, it seems that driving may not be this employees strong point. Perhaps it would make sense if she were retrained and transferred to a non-driving position?
This is EXACTLY why Metro needs to bring back the Dupont Circle Station Brothel. Their drivers should be banging paying customers, not vehicles or joggers.
ACORN is working on that as we speak.
....aaand now where are the people that gave me grief a few days ago for saying WMATA drivers suck? Yeah, that's what I thought.
I'm right here. Her record does not necessarily indicate that she is a bad driver. As others have pointed out, she drives a giant friggen bus 40 hours a week and she hasn't had so much as a fender bender in over five years.
I don't know... failing to apply a brake and having the bus roll down a hill setting off a chain reaction that damaged 7 cars?! That's the kind of stuff you see in movies (or car insurance commercials)... I'm not so sure that's forgiveable, such a mistake could have injured or killed people...
I'm not saying she was a bad person, just that she's obviously not a very attentive driver! I think WMATA's standards are a little low all things considered... but if they raise them too high, nobody in this area could work for them... so I guess it's a stale mate.
... and now that an accident she was involved in HAS killed someone, that's pretty much the axe to me. If you have a preventable accident involving fatalities, I think you should move on to a new position in the agency!
Whoa, settle down, last I heard, she's still alive and in stable condition. And we still don't know the full details. Like Guesty McSpanky said, "her driving record does not affect whether Amanda Mahnke darted into an intersection without looking."
Not only alive, but improving. Though still in ICU, according to the Post story today.
Not to mention it has yet to be concluded whether there was anything Carla Proctor could have done to prevent the accident.
@NewHCE:
To their defense, if you drive a big f'ing bus 2000 hours a year, accidents will happen.
Let's not bicker and squabble over who killed who, this should be a happy time!
ibc: i don't think newhce is taking things to quite the extreme that you're (probably) kidding about here.
Yeah, I think IBC is being serious. I just don't think that 2 fender benders over the years means anything.
Easy to focus on the negative here, but you'd be ignoring the fact that there is a large group of people out there that she has not struck with her bus. For example, I don't believe she has ever hit any of my cousins, and we all know my uncle had a whole mess of kids. Considering the record as whole, the glass is more than 3/4 full.
Ironically, Metro is now running an ad campaign in the papers bragging about how safe their drivers are. One of the ads I say said something like "10 years of driving and no accidents."
WaPo conveniently glossed over a few details to make their point, and DCist went along with it in the interest of brevity (I think).
The matter of driving an unregistered vehicle has not been proven. An officer can write citations for anything he or she wants, and every citizen has a right to defend themselves against the citations, which Proctor has not yet had a chance to do. Because the court date isn't until the end of this month.
WaPo very conveniently left out the detail that in the Wendy's accident, Proctor was not cited. The lawsuit from the patrons is a civil one, and as we've all seen, anyone can sue anyone civilly for anything they want. The patrons didn't even allege injury. They sued to get money because they could, and they sued Proctor because obviously the driver of the stolen vehicle wasn't going to pay up.
Also pointedly glossed over is the fact that in the case of the runaway bus that hit seven vehicles, the 'victims' were awarded a whopping $9,000 each by a jury--hardly an indicator of gross negligence. Half of the alleged victims didn't even participate in the suit. And again, no charges appear to have been filed against Proctor; the suit was a civil liability case.
The rules on the number of incidents a driver may incur are no looser than other cities nor for other types of commercial vehicles like truck drivers. Spend 2,000 hours a month behind the wheel of a vehicle for a few years, and you are going to be involved in a few incidents (not necessarily your own fault). It is simply the law of probability.
Well said.
Agreed. If there's one thing you can count on DCist commenters for, it's to start a virtual lynch mob without thinking for two seconds about the big picture.
I've gotten out of my car without putting on the parking brake before, as most have, and jumped back when it started rolling. It's not an indicator of gross negligence, it's a mistake that human beings occasionally make.
Everyone out there who's ready to convict her on the basis of this record should think about how many accidents they've been involved in in their lifetime, and then estimate the number of hours they've spent driving in that time. Probably less than she spends every year.
And any argument about it "being her job" is ridiculous. Every single person, bus driver, commuter, or to-the-corner-store driver takes the lives of others in their hands every time they step in the car and should take driving just as seriously. Accidents are accidents, and the standards seem reasonable, especially when you consider she's driving a goddamn BUS and not your honda civic.
Regardless of how difficult it is to drive around a huge bus in a crowded city, she sounds like a loser. Who drives an unregistered vehicle? She also crashed into a Wendys!
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