Driving at Disney World

[Princess Susi]

Can you imagine if he discovered that only when he tried to take off after a speeder? I wonder what would be the first word to come from his mouth?

Poop.....?

[TechieSidhe]

Thursday night, Dh and I were going to Coronado from Downtown Disney (PI Side) and we were riding back with Angel as our driver. (Angel, we really enjoyed riding with you!) Surely enough, the bus nearly hits someone who decides that it's a great idea to pull in front of a bus with NO TURN SIGNAL.

I'm a native Floridian who drives in Tampa all day, so I guess I'm used to this crap. We had tourists who didn't believe us when we told them this type of driving was in fact normal in Florida.

[Big Wallaby]

Tonight was one of the worst incidents I have had. Ever.

First off, I was in a bus where the box has all but locked out the microphone, so I couldn't talk. Keep this in mind, as it plays into what happened.

I was on a run from PI to Wilderness Lodge, passing Port Orleans when a car comes out right in front of me across the road on a left turn (driveway is on my right). As he got out into the road ahead of me, the driver freaked and realized he's about to be hit by a bus that is moving faster than he expected (who knew those things could do the speed limit!), and got on his brakes. It's then that I see the two kids in his back seat. Standing. Watching me. I knew that if I don't do something and keep from T-boning him, those two kids would die. So I was all over the road, trying to stop. I even did a slight zig-zag to help get my speed down.

So a guest called my manager and complained that I was driving recklessly.

I will admit, when I saw those kids I did get reckless. If an adult puts them self in a position and kills themselves using my bus, that is one thing. Had I not seen those kids, I would have stayed straight on and stopped somewhere on the other side of where his car was when I saw him. But when I saw those kids, I knew they were about to die, their last vision being me killing them. Even though it wouldn't have been my fault, those kids were innocent. By swerving (something I just don't ever do), my plan being that I would bump his rear quarter, swerve back to stay on the road and hopefully push him so that he would just slide alongside my bus until we came to a stop. Thankfully, at that moment he sped up again and I was able to clear him.

Now, keep in mind that my microphone was not working. I didn't have a place to pull over and check on everyone before we arrived at Wilderness Lodge. By that time the adrenaline had worn off it had hit me and I was shaking to the point where it was quite difficult to unstrap the ECV I had on board. Also, I am just getting over a sore throat and don't have the necessary vocal strength to shout over the noise of the bus and ask if everyone's okay... they won't hear me.

I made a decision tonight. I am completely done using the computer system, unless the microphone is loud enough, and when it is, I will keep the microphone keyed so I can speak immediately (HOLD ON, EVERYBODY!). If the MiMs has the mic silenced or too quiet, I will just go to Manual mode (which I am not allowed to do, although I have told the managers at DTD that I am doing it) as I can't afford to have tonight happen again.

Besides, I have three days left. My using or not using the Idiot Box from Hell will not affect its success rate... it's still going to fail miserably. And it's going to take Bus Transportation years to recover, as they chased off all their best drivers, and 90% of the drivers out there now either don't want to or know how to spiel.

This is multiple times now that the MiMs has been a safety hindrance to me when people do stupid things around my bus.

[mechurchlady]

Chin up Wallaby and big hugs to my hero.

[Princess Susi]

Transportsation is gonna miss you, big guy! :( Big HUGS for Big Wallaby! You only do what you do to try to NOT hurt someone! I hope the *jitters* are all gone. I know the feeling of that adrenaline rush when something makes you practically poop your pants. Not fun. It takes a long time for the brain to tell the body to shut off that adrenaline faucet.
Fight or Flight, it's a marvelous function of our nervous system. Makes ya sweat, cry, barf, and poop your pants! Gotta love a bodily system that makes you do that. :p:
Did you tell your lead what happened? Make sure thay know it was something you usually do?
HUGS!
susi

[ktulu]

Hopefully the manager understood why you got all crazy with it :)

Too bad Darph and I weren't riding, we could have gotten everyone to chant "righteous" along with us :)

[hobie16]

Good move Big!! You did everything right to avoid the collision. Maybe you should apply for an instructor position at the Bondurant School Of High Performance Driving. It was the best time I ever had on four wheels.

[Big Wallaby]

Hey, I'm okay, and I was by the end of the night.

Actually, when I went to to talk to the manager, he was surprised that it was me receiving a complaint. That was the first thing in my favor. Then, thanking him for coming to me immediately probably had a good effect... although that wasn't why I did it.

[Zazu]

We had an unusual bus incident last week. A 10:30pm run from PI to the resort ran off the road and back on twice during the run. The driver appeared to guests to be nodding off to sleep, and he clipped a pole and nearly rear-ended another bus at the resort stop. Three families immediately came and reamed a front desk manager. He called Transportation who promised to go pull the driver at once.

Scary stuff. I figure that guy's probably driving for Mears now.

Hmm, maybe it was the same driver in a DME bus who turned left from the right lane as I was turning into the Boardwalk tonight?

[Big Wallaby]

Wow. Just... wow.

We have some real gems in the fleet these days. Glad to be getting out of buses.

One question: Did the guests say he clipped the pole at the hotel or on the way? Any time the bus contacts anything but the ground, or even if it touches the ground with anything but the tires, that is a Signal 4. If he clipped the pole at the resort, that's bad enough. But if it was on the way to you, then he should be taken away NOW.

As you mention it, there were signs up just the other day that said make sure you are fully awake when you drive.

Hmm.

To me, running off the road in a bus is a very scary thing. When you do it, you risk flipping the bus over. You do NOT want your tires touching anything but pavement, especially at any high speeds.

I hope that driver is gone now. Probably not, but I can hope.