The View From Nathan's Bus

Strife

8/12/2013

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/08/metro-bus-driver-shot-in-downtown-seattle/

Over a fare dispute? What a sad and disappointing waste of life. My heart goes out to the victim, the shooter, the passersby, the strife and tension that led to the interaction. The world of hospital beds, heart-pounding pavement, glass shards and echos between tall buildings; the sickening feeling of your actions leading ahead of you, going places you know you shouldn't follow, saying things and regretting them all at once... it is no place to be.

Sitting in the back of the 41 last week, I listened to two young men next to me. They were discussing mid- and entry-level positions in the prostitution business, and their thoughts on life as would-be procurers. After a time their conversation drifted to larger concerns.

"'Cause life be movin' fast. But that ain't the nature a life itself, we make it that way. People fillin' up all the time, sayin' they saving time by doin' shit faster but you know is' bullshit. They just as busy as before. More busy even."
"And people wonder why they not happy,"
"Man. People be talkin' about yoga, meditation, fucked-up diets- but it's really just about slowin' the fuck down. That's all it is."

Abstractly speaking, we know how to avoid incidents like what happened today. We all know the rules and stance on fare disputes (avoiding them takes priority over collection). But the insistent weight of the day-to-day makes things harder. When life is cramped with stress, we don't operate at our best; the goodness we know we have escapes us. Priorities stutter and burst out of shape. I regret moments when I've spoken sharply to someone, forgetting what's really important. I have every faith in the abilities of the driver who got hurt today (and is still with us, thank goodness); stress leads us away from who we are. I hope everyone involved has a chance to recover, heal, consider things, slow down... and breathe. Let those priorities gently drift back to where they belong.

We, the ever-changing, ever constant human animal, are better than this. We don't need pugilistic activism or rash, fear-based solutions; we simply need to breathe.

15 Comments

70 Librarian

8/12/2013 06:09:10 am

Well said, Nathan. As always.

Glad that the driver will recover (and that you are okay). I've been broadcasting several mental tee shirts all day, "Not in my city" and "I heart Metro" while finding it difficult to think of anything but the incident this morning. I'm sure everyone at Metro is tetchy from the news and I'm sending hugs.

Nathan

8/15/2013 03:25:15 am

Thanks for the hugs! an I Heart Metro tee shirt would be awesome. I wish there were such things!

Ali

8/12/2013 09:51:31 am

Thanks for this Nathan. I've been reading your site for a while (and seen you driving the 49- though I was too shy to to introduce myself) and I've really enjoyed hearing your stories as a driver. As a 4x/per day rider, the friendly drivers always make my day a little brighter and I try to say hello and thank you as a bare minimum with every ride, just to show my appreciation for getting me safely from one place to another. My heart is broken for the Metro community today, and my thoughts are with the driver, the passengers, and everyone else involved. Thank you to you, and every drivers for what you do.

8/15/2013 03:28:06 am

Ali, thank you for reading the site. I'm glad you enjoy it. I'm also thankful for your empathy for the drivers- and for saying thanks to them all- some handle the stress better than others. As a regular rider myself, I do agree that the friendly ones make quite a difference. The reverse is also true- friendly passengers make my day so often! Feel free to say hi the next time you see me!

Phil

8/13/2013 02:54:08 am

Beautifully said. Thank you.

8/15/2013 03:29:10 am

Thanks, Phil. I was hesitant to read the comments at first, fearing they'd be a strewing of negatives (not sure why I thought that), so I'm thrilled to hear the positive feedback. Thanks!

Paul Margolis

8/13/2013 04:24:38 am

I was driving the 2 when the shooting occurred. In the first round of information the coordinator announced, "Please limit your calls to breakdowns and emergency only. We are dealing with a........... a... situation in the CBD (Central Business District). All Southbound buses on 3rd Ave will be blocked at Union Street. All Trolleys, please hold at Stewart street until we have more re-route information." When the call came through I was just pulling up to a red light southbound Queen Anne Ave at Denny Way. I most certainly was going to be affected by blockage. As an operator this is the first thing that you have to assess when the coordinator says "We are blocked here ___" As I made my way to Stewart St. I listened very careful the to the first few announcements about which buses would be re-routed where. Throughout the entire incident there would be around 50 calls like this as information changed and then was repeated so each bus could attempted to circumnavigate the chaos.

At this time I did not know the nature of the incident.

By the time I arrived at Stewart St. the reroute for the 2 was established. The 2 is a trolley so our re-routes are limited to where the wire can take us. I would turn right on Stewart. Left on 1st Ave. Left on Marion St. and then follow the 12 route until it intersects with the 2 Route and continue as a 2 from there.

As I turned right on Stewart, I few people ran from the zone at 3rd and Pine St to get onto my bus. I asked them if they knew what had happened and a man said "It's all messed up up. Someone got shot on a bus."

We followed our instructed course and mostly sat in traffic on First Ave since both 3rd and 2nd Ave were blocked at this time. I realized that the traffic would consume my breaks for the rest of the day and I got my lunch out and ate my egg salad sandwich when the bus was stopped as we creeped down the road.

30 minutes later we made it to Marion and it was relatively smooth sailing from there. Several people boarded simply trying to get East of the city. They new that waiting for their specific bus might be futile. I asked them where they needed to go and gave suggestions of where I could let them off that might be satisfactorily close to their destination. They all decided to board.

For the next several hours I would listen to the information that the coordinator yelled over the speaker and edit it and pass on the parts that might be relevant to the people who where on my bus. I had the volume turned WAY WAY up, hence the yelling, because I did not want to miss a word. It is customary when a passenger is boarding to ignore the coordinator's group calls and pay attention to the customer in front of you or at the least acknowledge them as you are listening carefully to the coordinators instructions.

Today was an exception. There was millions of questions to answer, yet I simultaneously need to to hear and understand EVERY word that the control center was saying. To accomplish both tasks, if the coordinator was talking, I would hold passengers that were boarding and we would wait for the coordinator to finish and then we could continue boarding. It slowed us down, but was necessary.

Once free of downtown, capital hill and the central district where unusually still with one exception; the masses of people waiting to get to downtown on the opposite side of the street.

It is unspoken bus driver code that you wave to a driver you are passing if you are not occupied with some other task. Week after week we wave at the same drivers in the same places and get used to seeing people again and again. We even learn where and when we may cross paths with a bus driver who is more of a friend than a work acquaintance and sometimes our waves to these drivers are more flamboyant.

As I proceeded towards Lake Washington..... it became clear that there was no other bus driver to wave at. I was the first bus through the chaos (I still did not know what had happened) which meant my leader must be stuck somewhere in the middle of it. It was about 9:15 in the morning. The incident occured at 8:38. Rush hour was not over and people still needed to get to work. The 2 runs every 15 minutes at this time and it was about to be the beginning of my busiest trip on a regular Monday.

Yet, I was alone.

I always get kind of excited under these circumstances and in the beginning of my career I would secretly wish for a few inches of snow to spice things up a little.

At the end of the line, I quickly ran to the restroom knowing that it would be some time before I would have another convenient opportunity to stop. I then picked up the two girls waiting and made my way back towards the chaos. There is a day camp half way up the hill and often 6 adults and 30 kids will jump on for a short ride. I vaguely told them what was going on and informed them that a bus back would not be following anything remotely close to the schedule. they boarded anyway, but dec

8/13/2013 04:27:36 am

but decided to jump ship a few stops later.

At 34th and Union, the time was now about 9:39am, a young man boarded. He was a little pale and with a sad but compassionate look on his face he said "I am sorry to hear about your coworker."

At this point all that I knew was that the road was closed and that maybe there was a shooting on a bus.

Several stops later I called him back for details. I realized also that my wife might know what was going on worry that I was the one that had been shot. The mans story was almost exactly what we all know now. He got the info on his smart phone while waiting for the bus. I wanted to contact my wife, but it would not be in line with metro policy to do this until I finished this trip. That it what I did. The news had disclosed the age of the driver, so my wife, who did know that a driver had been shot, knew that it was not me since the driver who was shot was 34 years older than me.

It was not until 10:31am that I recieved a text message from Metro Control Center stating:

"8:38 Operator shot at 3rd and Union. Driver is stable. Suspect in custody."

Back to the bus, now I knew that I was driving into chaos AND an operator was shot. This changes everything!!!! OR DOES IT?

This is the fundamental point of the entire situation as it affects me and my brain begins to move a million miles per second. Those of you who know me know that I suffered from crippling anxiety 2 years ago. Yet, when I applied to work at Metro, only 4 years before a Metro Operator was shot and his bus flew off of the Aurora bridge. I also applied for this job knowing that in some countries it is very popular to get on a bus with dynamite strapped to your chest.

I also know that the incident at 3rd and Union is not Bus specific and it could happen to me, but it is just as likely to happen to me when I am walking to the Columbia City Bakery. It could even happen in my own home.

I am still driving the 2 everyone. Some of the people maybe even most of them still don't know what has happened. What do i do now?

What do I do now?

Am I supposed to be sad?

Am I supposed to be mourning?

Am I supposed to be afraid?

Or, do I just go?

Somebody boards, I say "good morning how are you?" They say "great! And You?"

How am I?

Well the first time I responded, I said "OK." Normaly I would reply nothing less than 'fantastic' 'great!' or 'Really GOOD!!

But this type of bullshit happens all over the world every single day. I do not choose to focus on it and give it a single minute of my energy. I focus on the moment and what is positive all around me.

Just because this happened less than a mile from where I currently was and that it happened in a seat that I have sat in, does not make it any different.

I even asked my self, WWND? What would Nathan do? I often joke with Nathan about this phrase of mine, but I do often find myself in circumstances like these asking it to my self?

Nathan would be positive and compassionate! And so That plus my vote was 2 votes for possitive and that was all I need to procced through the next 7 hours telling people "I AM VERY GOOD!"

I AM GREAT!

And when I asked them how they were? Because of what had happened that morning, my question had more power and more depth. And I was able to listen more closely. And what people said mattered more. I felt it more.

So thank you Nathan! Your positivity has affected me positively and I am not the only one. Other operators and people move through the world differently because of your example. Thank you for being a Great Friend!

8/15/2013 03:33:51 am

...I'm honored. I'm humbled. Thank you, Paul. And in turn, many's the time when I've asked, "WWMD?" in my mind, and it's relieved tension or reoriented me or otherwise brought a smile to my face. When I'm pulling forward after servicing 3/Pine inbound, I hug the curb all they way up to the light during a red because, after all, that's WMWD!

Thanks for sharing this experience. It's great to hear the details of your time out there.

I particularly like this-

"But this type of bullshit happens all over the world every single day. I do not choose to focus on it and give it a single minute of my energy. I focus on the moment and what is positive all around me.

Just because this happened less than a mile from where I currently was and that it happened in a seat that I have sat in, does not make it any different."

I too responded with a big, "GREAT," all day that day. I really did feel great, after all. I was glad to be out there. People were more present, and had so many wonderful comments.

8/14/2013 07:18:12 am

And, this just cheered me up:
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/08/after-mondays-shooting-metro-bus-drivers-could-use-a-shout-out/

8/15/2013 03:56:10 am

Commendations never get old. Each time any kind of positive feedback comes in, I'm completely blown away. It takes time and energy to remember the coach number, the time, etc, to then go find the appropriate website/phone number, and write the actual feedback...I'm floored any time someone goes to the effort. Thanks to all those who have shared their appreciation for their bus drivers!

Bridgett Wonder AKA Mrs. Phil DeVault

8/14/2013 11:20:50 am

Nathan:

Your art and your sense of humanity continually astound me,. You are one special hum being!

Nathan Vass

8/15/2013 03:36:02 am

Thank you Bridgett Wonder AKA Mrs. Phil DeVault!!! What a terrific name. I'm honored to be a special hum being and a human being! Thank you so, so much for your words on my art and perspective. I'm beyond thrilled at the chance to share it with like-minded people such as yourself.

bwonder

8/14/2013 11:25:08 am

That would be human being. How embarrassing ;)

Paul Margolis (we met while I was up high on a scissor lift)

8/18/2013 07:31:21 am

Tell Phil the new book looks Incredible!!!

Strife

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