The Multiplying Factor

If you’re a policeman, you get to carry a gun; a lethal weapon.

If you’re a president or prime minister, you get to influence those who decide the fate of nations.

If you drive a bus, you carry the lives of 50 passengers in your hands, or at the very least, their ability to get to work on time.

So I am amazed at a TTC customer comment published in the Toronto Star today under the heading “ Dozens of TTC drivers punished for texting, eating on job “.

The two paragraphs of text read:

Other riders, after hearing media reports about drivers being suspended from their jobs, chastised the TTC for being too hard on employees.

“They have families to feed and bills to pay,” one customer wrote the TTC, “and I think getting fired for something as stupid as texting is ridiculous.

Me, I’m Staggered!

In your mind you might NOT be convinced that in the privacy of your own 4-wheeled vehicle texting-while-driving is dangerous (in my mind I have evidence that my chatting-with-a-passenger-while-driving is dangerous).

But you ought to be convinced that if there is even the teeniest possibility of danger in texting-while-driving to an individual, that possibility of danger is multiplied when you are driving 50 other people, that is, when 50 other people put their safety in your hands.

It’s Not About You Any More

50 people want to get from Here to There safely and on time.

You have accepted a contract (in the literal sense) to do just that.

And yes, each of the 50 passengers has “families to feed and bills to pay”.

That’s why it is important for the bus driver to get them to work on time and in one piece.

Talk to Me !

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