Well as you can imagine after a crash like that I got a lot of stick for it. In some places it would be called 'taking the mickey' but we call it 'taking the piss'. Well I have done my fair share of it in the past and am still doing it today. So you have to take it on the chin.
That is not to say that the staff were not sympathetic because they were. I was not the only person to take a bus under a bridge. Several had been done over the years and ALL by very experienced drivers. But after the initial shock and getting my job back, OH! did it start!
The usual ones like 'a bridge to far' and others came my way and followed me for years after that. Pictures of the bus that I crashed were shown to new entrants as a warning about bridges and the dangers of going of route. I even got my name in 'The Sun', the national newspaper. Just a small piece but it was there.
But when you do something like that there is only two ways to go. You can get nasty and punch the lights out of the first person to say anything or you can take it on the chin and wait for it to die down. And it always will because sooner or later there will be someone that does something else. As I was built for comfort and not fighting of course I just took it.
The boss who had the job to sack me and then give me my job back was behind the scenes very sympathetic. One day not long after the event when I was in work on my own he came in and just said, 'Steve, how the f*^k did you manage that'. We had a long talk over it and he was a good guy. He came across as a hard man but never sacked a man without massive cause.
So that was that and in the next blog I will put in a bit about how my job changed for the next 20 odd years.
Showing posts with label bridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bridge. Show all posts
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
The worst day of my life
Well as I said in the last blog post I made a massive error that cost a lot of money to both myself and the firm and could have cost me my job.
The day was a Sunday and started normally. I was by this time quite experienced and worked the bus station point a lot. This was even on a Sunday quite a busy place and you were kept on the go. At that time we were quite short staffed and one of the jobs that we used 'spare drivers' for was to go back and fore to the bus depot and change a bus if one came in with a problem.
Well on this day I had no drivers and needed to get a new one from the depot so I decided to do it myself. This was a common event and one that I had done dozens of times. So down I drove to the depot about 1 1/2 miles away and changed the bus that I was driving for another one.
And this is where it all went wrong.......
To go back to our bus depot the route was right from the exit and then on a standard route. I took the left turn, just thinking of something else at the time and took the route that I had taken in my car many times before. What I had forgotten was that I was driving a double decker bus. I turned left from the depot and then the next left. This route had a low bridge there that our buses were strictly banned from.
So I then took a 13 foot bus under a 12 foot bridge......
At the time I could not make out what was going on as the bus just seemed to have problems moving. Well it would do wouldn't it? After a few minutes I realised what had happened and stopped. But by this time I was out the other side and the top of the bus was on the floor behind the bus.
I immediately called for emergency help and got the control room to sort out police etc. After the whole thing had been sorted out I was suspended and told to come back the next day. I was dismissed from the company and after investigation was given my job back due to my good record.
So the cost? Well the bus had to be scrapped and the bridge checked by professionals. For myself I was due a good pay rise and I had been relying on that. But I was glad to have a job I guess and to wait a year for that pay rise was a small thing after that.
I was also charged with driving without due care and attention by the police and had my licence endorsed and fined. But I had a job and just had to put up with the fun that was made of me at the time.
The day was a Sunday and started normally. I was by this time quite experienced and worked the bus station point a lot. This was even on a Sunday quite a busy place and you were kept on the go. At that time we were quite short staffed and one of the jobs that we used 'spare drivers' for was to go back and fore to the bus depot and change a bus if one came in with a problem.
Well on this day I had no drivers and needed to get a new one from the depot so I decided to do it myself. This was a common event and one that I had done dozens of times. So down I drove to the depot about 1 1/2 miles away and changed the bus that I was driving for another one.
And this is where it all went wrong.......
To go back to our bus depot the route was right from the exit and then on a standard route. I took the left turn, just thinking of something else at the time and took the route that I had taken in my car many times before. What I had forgotten was that I was driving a double decker bus. I turned left from the depot and then the next left. This route had a low bridge there that our buses were strictly banned from.
So I then took a 13 foot bus under a 12 foot bridge......
At the time I could not make out what was going on as the bus just seemed to have problems moving. Well it would do wouldn't it? After a few minutes I realised what had happened and stopped. But by this time I was out the other side and the top of the bus was on the floor behind the bus.
I immediately called for emergency help and got the control room to sort out police etc. After the whole thing had been sorted out I was suspended and told to come back the next day. I was dismissed from the company and after investigation was given my job back due to my good record.
So the cost? Well the bus had to be scrapped and the bridge checked by professionals. For myself I was due a good pay rise and I had been relying on that. But I was glad to have a job I guess and to wait a year for that pay rise was a small thing after that.
I was also charged with driving without due care and attention by the police and had my licence endorsed and fined. But I had a job and just had to put up with the fun that was made of me at the time.
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