EMTA bus crashes

[Tasman]

Ben what did the drivers think of Alyson Amendola when she was the mouthpiece of EMTA? Was she helpful to your situation? Or did she sweep the problems under the carpet?

She's now Mark D.'s hired mouth at the county.

[Finky]

I heard a story of a bike rack falling off shortly after installation this spring.
Sounds like a simple case of not installing
bolts and tightening to the proper torque.

[Ben]

Billy wrote:

To Ben, who is the bus driver who preaches to passengers about Jesus Christ and being saved? It has become outright harrassment. This **** was on the route 27 bus last Wednesday morning. I have never seen anything like it.
And who is the black lady driver who is nice as pie to black passengers but won't talk much to white passengers?

I think I know the preacher and I will talk to him. Is the lady driver on 27 also?

[Ben]

Tasman wrote:

Ben what did the drivers think of Alyson Amendola when she was the mouthpiece of EMTA? Was she helpful to your situation? Or did she sweep the problems under the carpet?
She's now Mark D.'s hired mouth at the county.

Management People were told that whether or not they liked or agreed with the executive director they had to maintain they liked him and agreed with him 100% publicly, anyone straying from this has been terminated. That being said she neither hurt nor helped.
I think she swept as best she could, as is the new marketing girl. EMTA has a lot to sweep.

[Ben]

Finky wrote:

I heard a story of a bike rack falling off shortly after installation this spring.
Sounds like a simple case of not installing
bolts and tightening to the proper torque.

I know one went out that I was installing, went to get the nuts and washers and came back to find the bus gone, I guess that would be my fault, I should have killed the starter to keep it from being started up.

[allowna]

umm safety is their concern? HAHAHAHAHAHA

i pulled up next to an EMTA by 21st and state, he was pulling out from the curb line, in a 3rd lane, which there isnt any, wasnt looking almost hit me and get this, had a sub sandwhich and a cell phone up to his face!!!!!!....dont you think it would be a LOT safer if they werent allowed to use cells and EAT while DRIVING??????

lets think back on how many accidents we have heard about in the past..........

[allowna]

you know what elase is sad. the fact that the EMTA wont go past asbury road. years ago it went to manchester and turned around, now lake shore people have to walk a mile or so in all kinds of weather just to get the bus by country fair store by the airport. when we asked why? they responded they werent making any money from us. i said it is only a mile or so more to go. they wouldnt respond. we even wrote the tv stations, no response. butttt the EMTA drives right into tri state schools property in fairview pa. up on rt 20....... i wonder how much the school had to pay for that privledge, or do they? it is a private school after all and well, isnt that public tranportation? watch and see sometime how many people are walking with bags, groceries, little kids, wheelchairs, elderly, teens, etc, across rt 5 in all kinds of weather, all ages, cause we dont have bus service one mile past the airport. but we did while i was growing up for more than 50+ yrs.

[Billy]

The lady has been on various bus routes I've ridden on, including 27. I figured she was a floater who gets placed on different routes. She's chubby and wears glasses.

Most of your drivers seem like pretty good people. A few of them, however, look really pissed off all the time and don't act too friendly. But you do have some really good ones. One of these is a driver who is a white woman with short blond hair who is kind of chubby. She is very personalable and professional and great with the customers/riders. She's probably one of the best drivers I've seen yet. I've seen her on 27 before, but I don't think it was ever her permanent route.

There also was a black fellow on 27 who was very good. He was one of my favorite drivers. Then he must have gone to another route or to one of the trolleys. He was the route 27 driver for a year or two at least.

Speaking of route 27, you guys really messed that route up when you expanded it to help the casino. Lots of people are complaining about this. Why did you do it? I can understand wanting to send buses to the casino, but why did you cut off the early morning routes?

There used to be early morning runs on that bus. I could take it downtown and catch it shortly after 7 a.m. And someone who worked downtown or went to school at Prep or Gannon could catch the early run too. But now I can't get it until after
9 o'clock. The very first run that heads back downtown doesn't get to the VA hospital until after 9 a.m.

I don't see the logic in cutting off the early routes. People who needed those routes to get to work or school in the city are now out of luck. You're running that route as late as 11 o'clock at night and on Saturday and Sunday to serve the casino. That's great, but first shift workers and students who needed those early routes to get into the city have ended up having an essential bus route cut. That doesn't make much sense. Lots of people are complaining.

[Billy]

I also have to add that I've been on several buses in recent years that have broken down. We then had to wait for another bus and then we had to switch buses. It's only in the past few years that I've gone through this. Years ago it didn't seem to happen with the buses.

[Ben]

allowna wrote:

you know what elase is sad. the fact that the EMTA wont go past asbury road. years ago it went to manchester and turned around, now lake shore people have to walk a mile or so in all kinds of weather just to get the bus by country fair store by the airport. when we asked why? they responded they werent making any money from us. i said it is only a mile or so more to go. they wouldnt respond. we even wrote the tv stations, no response. butttt the EMTA drives right into tri state schools property in fairview pa. up on rt 20....... i wonder how much the school had to pay for that privledge, or do they? it is a private school after all and well, isnt that public tranportation? watch and see sometime how many people are walking with bags, groceries, little kids, wheelchairs, elderly, teens, etc, across rt 5 in all kinds of weather, all ages, cause we dont have bus service one mile past the airport. but we did while i was growing up for more than 50+ yrs.

We voiced our concerns also, but I guess the people that never run a bus know more about the passengers needs than the passengers or operators.

[Ben]

Billy wrote:

The lady has been on various bus routes I've ridden on, including 27. I figured she was a floater who gets placed on different routes. She's chubby and wears glasses.
Most of your drivers seem like pretty good people. A few of them, however, look really **** off all the time and don't act too friendly. But you do have some really good ones. One of these is a driver who is a white woman with short blond hair who is kind of chubby. She is very personalable and professional and great with the customers/riders. She's probably one of the best drivers I've seen yet. I've seen her on 27 before, but I don't think it was ever her permanent route.
There also was a black fellow on 27 who was very good. He was one of my favorite drivers. Then he must have gone to another route or to one of the trolleys. He was the route 27 driver for a year or two at least.
Speaking of route 27, you guys really messed that route up when you expanded it to help the casino. Lots of people are complaining about this. Why did you do it? I can understand wanting to send buses to the casino, but why did you cut off the early morning routes?
There used to be early morning runs on that bus. I could take it downtown and catch it shortly after 7 a.m. And someone who worked downtown or went to school at Prep or Gannon could catch the early run too. But now I can't get it until after
9 o'clock. The very first run that heads back downtown doesn't get to the VA hospital until after 9 a.m.
I don't see the logic in cutting off the early routes. People who needed those routes to get to work or school in the city are now out of luck. You're running that route as late as 11 o'clock at night and on Saturday and Sunday to serve the casino. That's great, but first shift workers and students who needed those early routes to get into the city have ended up having an essential bus route cut. That doesn't make much sense. Lots of people are complaining.

Again, EMTA management does not accept any input from its operators or the people it was supposed to serve. They spent Hundreds of thousands of dollars a few years ago to have someone from Philly come in and change the routes, now it appears they are slowly moving back to the routes we had previously, and this is costing money again. As for some driver attitudes, I can say very confidently that the treatment at EMTA creates bad attitudes and destroys good ones.EMTA board meeting is Monday the 28th at the Intermodal Hub at 4:30, tell them

[Former Op]

I've said this for a long time yet the high ups at EMTA that make the big bucks just don't get it...

The better you treat your operators, the better your operators will treat your customers. There is a direct link between operators that are treated like garbage by management, then going out and being snide and rude to riders. I'm not trying to excuse the bad behavior of any operators you may have encountered out there, I'm simply trying to give you some insight as to why it may be occurring.

Why focus all of your energy on disciplining operators? I have no qualms with enforcing rules and regulations, but the practices used by EMTA go way beyond that. The result is an environment of fear, hostility and poor morale. This is inappropriate for a work environment in which safety and pride should be the number one goal.

Imagine working in a highly stressful environment such as a city bus. In the winter, the roads are bad (EMTA refuses to use snow tires, or atleast they did when I worked there) which makes winter driving extremely dangerous. In the summer, the buses are hot (they may be cool for the passengers but when your surrounded by a big glass windshield with the sun beating down on it, they are hot.) Then factor in passengers, many of which are school kids that give you a hard time, unsteady hours (extra board operators that don't have enough seniority to pick their own steady runs) and equipment that is improperly maintained and working without an official union contract. Then throw into the mix a management team that is looking for any violation no matter how slight, so they can suspend you without pay for 3-5 days. Something as simple as an accusation that can't be proven, such as "the bus passed me up" is enough grounds for them in their minds to suspend you or at least make your life fairly more difficult than it should be. Is this a place that you can say that you would look forward to coming to each day? The pay is decent, but not great. Other transit systems out there pay more.

Seriously, if the EMTA management thought they could get away with blaming the tree for getting in the way of the bus that hit it, they would. ANYTHING to avoid taking responsibility for what happened. Sadly in the commercial driving world, operators get blamed when anything goes wrong. It's a catch-22 situation.

If the operator of 0102 refused to drive that bus on that day, citing previous known incidents of brake failures of that bus, she most certainly would have been brought up on insubordination charges by EMTA and would have faced a suspension. The company would have claimed the bus to be in proper order. Yet, if you take the bus and have an accident their response is that you are a professionally trained operator and that you should have had the skill to stop that 20 ton bus with no brakes and magically not hit anything or cause any damage.

When I worked at EMTA 0105 bus had issues with the right rear dual falling off and I believe that occurred at least 3 times.

As far as service goes, EMTA could save tons of money simply by talking to the drivers and passengers to find out what adjustments would benefit the public. Management truly believes that bus drivers are beneath them and they are simply mindless drones that couldn't possibly have any solutions or idea's to benefit the system. Never mind the fact that these people represent EMTA to the public each and everyday and have built relationship and rapport with the riders.

If EMTA put as much effort into designing their routes and services as they do into discipling drivers for minor, petty offenses let's just say this would be the best transit system in the US.

[Former Op2]

Driver will be "thrown under the bus". Count on it. Maintenence isn't made to do their jobs, or held accountable for just switching buses to other routes w/o being repaired. There are a favored few who can usually be found washing and waxing Solensky's SUV.

[thissitesucks]

So good old EMTA is changing the routes back to how they were before, eh? There was nothing wrong with the original routes. Add some more hours in the AM, PM and on Sunday.
Some of the drivers do need an attitude adjustment. I had a driver try to get a bully attitude with me a few times for no good reason other than he figured that he could. I guess to him, I "looked" like a "victim".
The first few times I brushed it off to me being "overly sensitive", but the last time I let this d*ck know, with a few choice words, where he could go and how he could get there. As I stepped of the bus, his lips couldn't be pressed any harder on my behind.

[FIRE ONE]

living4him wrote:

I know of 2 incidents where EMTA busses have caught on fire. Once when I was on. And another time when my friend was going to catch it, but refused because when the driver reported the smoke via the radio, they told him to keep on driving it. When the bus I was on pulled into the lot, the mechanic tried to tell us that there was steam coming out of the bus. I don’t think so. I am visually impaired, and I may not have been able to see it, but believe me folks, I know smoke when I smell it. It turns out that the engine was on fire.
EMTA…you better shape up!

I AM THE DRIVER OF THAT ONE BUS. AND INDEED IT WAS ON FIRE..THEY COULDN'T PUT IT OUT WITH A FIRE EXTINQUISHER THEY HAD TO CALL FIREMEN!!! THE NIGHT BEFORE THIS HAPPENNED IT WAS TAKEN OFFLINE BECAUSE IT HAD A DIESEL LEAK..I GUESS NO ONE TOLD THE HEAD OF THE MECHANICS THAT IT NEEDED TO BE FIXED.

[Kati]

So you can't see red lines?

former erie dem wrote:

be nice i have a hard time typing since my stroke 6 months ago

[Kali]

Just trying to make sense of the garbage that is written.

resident wrote:

Kali are you profreading all the posts? Get a life.....

[Wyldkat]

Ben wrote:

<quoted text>
I know one went out that I was installing, went to get the nuts and washers and came back to find the bus gone, I guess that would be my fault, I should have killed the starter to keep it from being started up.

Were you (if you really work there, which I have doubts) working on it in the maintenance bay? If so, it wouldn't have went out. Another point, there are not 10 or 15 writeups in the book on her bus. If you are one of the mechanics, you would know how the S-cam brakes work, and that those are what are on the buses. For those who don't know, including you, the air pressure is what holds the clamp open. When the air fails, the spring releases to apply the brakes in assistance. It's more complicated than that, but the basics will do. The woman driving, who I do know who it is, had been accelerating, not braking. This is not only an eyewitness account, but from other sources. It is a chargable accident. The steering wheel was broken, and the bus totaled. She suffered body injuries, and the leg is broken in two places. This amount of damage could not result from a low speed accident. Think about that folks. If she was trying to brake, the motor wouldn't have geared up, and the bus would have slowed. For another thing, the driver who hit the bicyclist, that story you have a bit off as well. That was an authorized point, and as he was pulling into the parking area, the doctor rode in front of the bus. The driver couldn't have seen him at night. The driver never claimed brake failure in that accident. He knew, and owned, what happened. To this day, he is still regretful that it did happen. Not quite sure where you got that one. Please be more careful of your information.

[Wyldkat]

name wrote:

the bus drivers need to stop running stop signs.

That is exactly the problem.

[Ben]

Wyldkat wrote:

<quoted text>
Were you (if you really work there, which I have doubts) working on it in the maintenance bay? If so, it wouldn't have went out. Another point, there are not 10 or 15 writeups in the book on her bus. If you are one of the mechanics, you would know how the S-cam brakes work, and that those are what are on the buses. For those who don't know, including you, the air pressure is what holds the clamp open. When the air fails, the spring releases to apply the brakes in assistance. It's more complicated than that, but the basics will do. The woman driving, who I do know who it is, had been accelerating, not braking. This is not only an eyewitness account, but from other sources. It is a chargable accident. The steering wheel was broken, and the bus totaled. She suffered body injuries, and the leg is broken in two places. This amount of damage could not result from a low speed accident. Think about that folks. If she was trying to brake, the motor wouldn't have geared up, and the bus would have slowed. For another thing, the driver who hit the bicyclist, that story you have a bit off as well. That was an authorized point, and as he was pulling into the parking area, the doctor rode in front of the bus. The driver couldn't have seen him at night. The driver never claimed brake failure in that accident. He knew, and owned, what happened. To this day, he is still regretful that it did happen. Not quite sure where you got that one. Please be more careful of your information.

The bike racks were being put on mainly in the parking garage, that's where the bus pulled out from.
Don't know what you're talking about with the Bicyclist, I think your confusing me with another post, I never said the driver claimed brake failure I simply stated that when the bus was checked the State Troopers found faulty brakes, we were lucky that day because had the driver seen the cyclist and hit the brakes EMTA would have been hit with a gross negligence charge instead of it being ruled an accident. and the accident was at dawn not at night, I was there, I towed the bus in. Only been there 32 years. As for the bus June was driving there was certainly 10 or 15 write ups on the brakes, and I also sent an e-mail to the company complaining about the brakes being lost on several vehicles and named that exact bus. Try driving a bus with no brakes over crowned roads and through yards, with the air-bag drivers seat you will be bouncing like a basketball, how can you keep your feet on the brake? she damn well could have hit the accelerator while bouncing up and down through the yards, is that her fault? wyldkat, since you present yourself as quite educated on the subject, I'd appreciate you informing us as to how the wabco brakes on these buses have shown an intermittent tendency to not operate at all.