APPAULED by the bus wreck, WE REPORTED FRED THIS SUMMER!

[Cyrano]

Originally Posted by safetymom

Yes there was another bus accident today. http://www.wftv.com/news/23044258/detail.html

I couldn't believe that this bus driver was 81. I hope I am still alive at 81 but I really think there needs to be an age limit for bus drivers just like there is for airline pilots.

Totally agree

[Tikitoi]

Good job OP for reporting Fred, but very bad job disney for not doing a thing about it!Well maybe when they have to start paying out for lawsuits that will get their attention.

[little bob]

Just for the record. I have never sued anyone and dont think that I have ever told anyone to sue someone.

BUT

If I were in your shoes(and im not) I think that I would possibly contact anyone that was injured or had any property damaged by this accident and give them your report. That way they could 'stick it to disney'. I hate to say it that way but this is completely unacceptable. What if he had hit another child because of his 'I dont give a damn what you think about my driving' attitude?

/rant

[parrotheadlois]

Originally Posted by timandlesley

I am completely taken aback right now. I just read the other thread on here about the OTHER Disney wreck that occurred today, when I saw the driver was 81 year old FRED, I was BLOWN AWAY! We encountered him during our trip this past summer and reported him. I am copying and pasting what I typed in our Trip Report about our horrible incident on Fred's bus:
What a WONDERFUL, PERFECT, OUTSTANDING, AMAZING,INCREDIBLE,FANTASTIC,SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICE XPIALIDOCIOUS DISNEY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, at the parks that is, the magic ended when we got on the bus. We had a driver named Fred. He was driving so fast he ramped 3 curbs even after people told him to slow down. One time he ramped one a kids head nailed the window and he started crying and screaming. He took off at one point and shut the door when people were standing up trying to exit the bus and they almost all fell over like dominos. At this point Tim and another guys said “hey, DUDE, you have people trying to get off back here and you’re taking off and they are falling down, open your eyes!” To which he said “You want to drive the bus buddy!!!” Oh man, our blood was boiling. At one point he came back to the unload a wheelchair which was right by us and Tim and the other guy calmly said “you need to slow down, you have kids hitting windows, people falling down, you are ramping curbs left and right” the guy got angry and defensive and kept saying “well, then you drive the bus! I’ve been driving longer than you’ve been living! I ramp curbs all the time, it’s no big deal, that ‘s what happens in these buses, everyone ramps the curbs.” GEEZ. The other guy kept saying “don’t argue with guests please Fred” but he kept it up.(bare in mind this was just a DAY after the monorail accident you would think Fred would be taking public transportation safety a little more seriously) Well, we were a LITTLE fired up by the time we got back to Saratoga and Tim and the guy headed to the front desk with the bus number and Fred’s name to report him. They did seem to take the complaint very seriously so I’m hoping Fred is no longer driving Disney buses. While Tim and the guy were up complaining about Fred the bus driver from hell the kids and I grabbed some snacks at Springs. Then we all walked back to the room and sack around 11pm.


CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!?! I am absolutely appauled that Disney allowed him to drive at the age of 81 and with reports like ours. I am PRAYING that this accident today will finally show Disney they need to fire this horrible excuse for a Disney employee or these accidents will just keep occuring!
Lesley

this is horrendous. You really need to write this down and send it to EVERYONE. This guy can't be kept on the roads. Even the Orlando Sentinal - we love Disney, but someone dropped the ball on this. Fred needs to be fired - or generously - forced to retire.

[PBB]

This is just horrible. I can not believe there isn't an age limit with the State of Florida for bus drivers much less Disney. I am sure "Fred" has been driving buses for years and he probably drove them at Disney. BUT, to put everyone's safety at risk is crazy. An elderly person abilities and capacities can go so quickly versus someone at a lesser age. I don't believe in age discrimination at all but I don't believe diminished capacity is discriminatory. I am sure if Disney gave "Fred" more tests than a normal driver then they would be viewed as trying to fire the "Old Person".

Thank God No one appears hurt and a car took the punishment instead of a guest. I am sure Disney will take care of the car for insurance purposes and might give the guest and family a couple of bucks for their "inconvenience" and then it will go away.

I find it criminal though to put an 81 year old behind the wheel of the bus. Much less, after it was reported to Disney previously that this driver had "issues". I just don't see the driver or the Orange County and/or The State of Florida government going after Disney.

I am sure Fred needs his job to live and he has no incentive to tell Disney of any physical problems he might be having because he would be fired from his job. He is lucky he did not kill someone.

I used to trust Disney to do the right thing in all aspects of their decisions. There was a general view that Disney made "Quality Decisions" not just whatever is "Cheapest". Look at the recent suicides by 2 park employees at Euro Disney where the former employee felt under such pressure to do more with less money available. That management style comes from the top. It wasn't always that way.

[CanadianGuy]

I too agree the OP needs to let OSHA and maybe even the Orlando Sentinel know about the history of this driver and you wanna bet if there was one complaint - there were probably more..

[SamSam]

I agree the bus driver should not be driving, but isn't the bussing outsourced? I may be wrong, but I thought I had read that WDW outsourced the bussing a couple of years ago. If so, WDW may not have any say in who is allowed to drive.

[iactaest]

Unfortunately there are a lot of dangerous Cast Members who continue to work in their respective areas even after they get fired because of the Union Grievance process, which has to go forward whether the cm was a hazard or not. There are bad eggs everywhere on property, unfortunately they aren't being looked after closely enough by management in order to stop all of these terrible accidents.

[Cherinva]

Wow...this is not good. Shame on whoever is continuing to let that man drive. Surely, there could be something else he could do that wouldn't endanger anyone's life...including his own.

[kc5grw]

Wow. I think folks need to exercise a bit of restraint. I don't see the problem being that the guy was 81 years old. Bus drivers must have a CDL to drive a bus in Florida or anywhere else for that matter. Federal Motor Carrier regulations also dictate that you must have a medical certificate saying you are physically qualified to drive a commerical vehicle. I've seen plenty of younger drivers that are just as bad as it sounds like this guy was. Assuming this guy was getting numerous complaints Disney should have done a better job of making sure we wasn't in front of guests in any position. The fact that he was 81 really should have no bearing on it.

[truck1]

Originally Posted by SamSam

I agree the bus driver should not be driving, but isn't the bussing outsourced? I may be wrong, but I thought I had read that WDW outsourced the bussing a couple of years ago. If so, WDW may not have any say in who is allowed to drive.

The resort busses are still owned and operated by Disney. The DME and the DCL busses are outsourced to Mears.

Originally Posted by kc5grw

Wow. I think folks need to exercise a bit of restraint. I don't see the problem being that the guy was 81 years old. Bus drivers must have a CDL to drive a bus in Florida or anywhere else for that matter. Federal Motor Carrier regulations also dictate that you must have a medical certificate saying you are physically qualified to drive a commerical vehicle. I've seen plenty of younger drivers that are just as bad as it sounds like this guy was. Assuming this guy was getting numerous complaints Disney should have done a better job of making sure we wasn't in front of guests in any position. The fact that he was 81 really should have no bearing on it.

Thank you.Ive seen this reaction several times.Ive seen 80 year old drivers that will out drive 21 year olds,(ok it might take an hour to get from AK to the AKL). Assuming that this guy got more than 1 complaint, then there is an issue with his manager. If he only got 1, its probably been chalked up to a bad day.I was a lead in busses for a while and youd be surprised at how little gets turned into busses as far as complaints on driving.AFAIK, there is no remedial training for any driver. At least there wasnt when I was there, and I dont see that being changed now that they are cutting budgets left and right on property.

[truck1]

Originally Posted by iactaest

Unfortunately there are a lot of dangerous Cast Members who continue to work in their respective areas even after they get fired because of the Union Grievance process, which has to go forward whether the cm was a hazard or not. There are bad eggs everywhere on property, unfortunately they aren't being looked after closely enough by management in order to stop all of these terrible accidents.

If a cm gets fired they will stay fired,until the process is over.Depending on the severity of the charge, a cm can and will be supspended during the investigation.They also could be assigned somewhere else within their department.The union (assuming the cm was a union member)will grieve the situation,and will come to an understanding with the comp.Usually what will happen, depending on the circumstance, say a bus driver for example,the affected cm will get reassigned to another area, that does not involve driving.Theyll go to a area that has a similar pay scale.There are exceptions to the rule.There was 1 driver they had to give extra negative points to before this person was fired due to their propensity to sue,due to discrimination.In that case Disney was covering the bases so that when they did fire this person, they (the driver)didnt have a leg to stand on in court.

I can think of several people recently and not recently that have been fired from busses, for varying things.2 were returned to duty, 1 as a driver, the other I think went to security,or custodial due to the fact that the accidents they were in, were caused by a known maintanace issues,that maintanace swore they had no knowledge of.Even thought the log books on the affected busses were filled with write ups on the issue that casued the accident.And the mechanics signed off on the bus nightly.(I dont know how many mechanics Ive made mad over things like that.)

Of the remaining, they stayed fired and are/were looking for new jobs.At least 1 was escorted off property with a trespass by both security and OCSO, and at least 1 other by security alone.On the spot.

No matter what happens, like you said, there are good and bad eggs on property.With over 65000 cms employed, not everyone is cut out to work for Disney.

[WriteDisney]

Originally Posted by timandlesley

I am completely taken aback right now. I just read the other thread on here about the OTHER Disney wreck that occurred today, when I saw the driver was 81 year old FRED, I was BLOWN AWAY! We encountered him during our trip this past summer and reported him. I am copying and pasting what I typed in our Trip Report about our horrible incident on Fred's bus:
What a WONDERFUL, PERFECT, OUTSTANDING, AMAZING,INCREDIBLE,FANTASTIC,SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICE XPIALIDOCIOUS DISNEY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, at the parks that is, the magic ended when we got on the bus. We had a driver named Fred. He was driving so fast he ramped 3 curbs even after people told him to slow down. One time he ramped one a kids head nailed the window and he started crying and screaming. He took off at one point and shut the door when people were standing up trying to exit the bus and they almost all fell over like dominos. At this point Tim and another guys said “hey, DUDE, you have people trying to get off back here and you’re taking off and they are falling down, open your eyes!” To which he said “You want to drive the bus buddy!!!” Oh man, our blood was boiling. At one point he came back to the unload a wheelchair which was right by us and Tim and the other guy calmly said “you need to slow down, you have kids hitting windows, people falling down, you are ramping curbs left and right” the guy got angry and defensive and kept saying “well, then you drive the bus! I’ve been driving longer than you’ve been living! I ramp curbs all the time, it’s no big deal, that ‘s what happens in these buses, everyone ramps the curbs.” GEEZ. The other guy kept saying “don’t argue with guests please Fred” but he kept it up.(bare in mind this was just a DAY after the monorail accident you would think Fred would be taking public transportation safety a little more seriously) Well, we were a LITTLE fired up by the time we got back to Saratoga and Tim and the guy headed to the front desk with the bus number and Fred’s name to report him. They did seem to take the complaint very seriously so I’m hoping Fred is no longer driving Disney buses. While Tim and the guy were up complaining about Fred the bus driver from hell the kids and I grabbed some snacks at Springs. Then we all walked back to the room and sack around 11pm.


CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!?!?! I am absolutely appauled that Disney allowed him to drive at the age of 81 and with reports like ours. I am PRAYING that this accident today will finally show Disney they need to fire this horrible excuse for a Disney employee or these accidents will just keep occuring!
Lesley

Did you get Fred's last name? Are you positive that this Fred is the same Fred involved in the accident?

ETA: Nevermind. Saw your other post.