When a public transportation vehicle has pulled into its stop less than perfectly, its driver sometimes makes subtle adjustments to improve its positioning. These short, momentary aberrations often create significant risks because would-be passengers are not expecting them. For example:
Most of us have witnessed news footage of famous tragedies where repositioning either failed or was not a sensible option to begin with. Planes have overshot the runways of aircraft carriers. Helicopters have missed their often tiny rooftop helipads. Space shuttle appendages have failed to dock. And NASCAR drivers have overshot their pits – occasionally mowing down their or their competitors' pit crews. These episodes are considerably different than those cited above because those awaiting these vehicles' or appendages' positioning are not only professionals, but professionals anticipating these adjustments.
Bus passengers are generally not members of the same class of victims. Most importantly, many of them do not anticipate vehicle repositioning but, instead, react or respond to the bus, coach, van or minibus' initial positioning as its single and final stop. When the vehicle is then repositioned, its would-be passengers can be taken by surprise, and unlike the vehicles and their drivers, do not or cannot make the adjustments needed to avoid injury. The volume of quirky readjustments is compounded by the increasingly-tight schedules of most modern passenger transportation services, and their drivers' tendencies to zoom in and out of stop zones as fast as they can.
A common theme illustrated by the four incidents cited above is that all four of their victims were either pre-school students, schoolchildren, elderly passengers or disabled passengers. This mix of anxious or senile passengers comprises ninety percent of all motorcoach riders.
While more alert or athletic passengers might have avoided any or all of the incidents noted above, civil laws require public transportation organizations and other tortfeasors to “take the victims where they find them.” This principle is commonly known in legal parlance as the “eggshell doctrine.” In essence, the limitations or disabilities of the passengers are not a defense to a driver's or system's errors or omissions. In contrast, these limitations translate into the driver's responsibility to exercise a heightened degree of vigilance, and to provide a higher standard or duty of care. This standard or duty usually anoints public transportation services as “common carriers.” In a courtroom, their drivers, owners and management are held to a significantly higher standard of care than a typical motorist operating his or her personal vehicle.
Pulling into a stop perfectly the first time is what separates the terrific drivers from the rank and file. This is not to say that some last-minute adjustments are never needed: Many times they are. But when they are, these adjustments must mitigate risk – not create or increase it. Where there are no redeeming justifications for a vehicle's repositioning, its driver, owner and management are exposed to the risks of liability when that repositioning leads to an injury.
When you must reposition your vehicle, for whatever reason, it is of paramount importance to “clear your mirrors,” engage every appropriate light and signal, and make sure that the information conveyed to individuals both inside and outside the bus is both appropriate and unambiguous. While your second chance at positioning the bus may work for you and your vehicle, it may not work well for passengers, motorists or pedestrians. If you fail to ensure that it does, U.S. courts and juries will have little pity on you or your employer, and the remedies meted out can be costly and disruptive. For a driver responsible for the carnage, one tiny mistake can haunt you for the remainder of your life.