Bus drivers deserve our praise in both word and deed

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

The carnage on our roads is appalling; it’s a horror show, and has been for far too long. Are they really accidents? 

When it comes to slaughter on our roads is it not a misnomer to call them accidents? If I get into my car, drive my motorbike or indeed cycle my bicycle having consumed alcohol surely it’s not an accident if I kill or maim someone? Indeed, you might say it was an accident I didn’t kill a person.

Most of us have no time for those who misbehave on our roads; at least we have no trouble expressing those views to friends and neighbours and certainly in public. 

But how often do we actually flagrantly break the rules of the road? Every day I see people on their phones while they are driving their cars. I’m inclined to believe people are so slow to move off when lights change to green because they are occupied with their phones.

And I’m no saint on the road. I believe the story below may have a cathartic role in my telling it and I certainly hope it has.

I have been gifted with the great ability of sound sleeping; alas one night last week I slept for a mere four hours. I spent the night thinking and worrying about something I had done earlier in the day.

I was cycling in Dublin’s city centre, to be precise on Dorset Street, heading towards Mountjoy Jail; I was in a hurry. I had been asked to deliver a book to someone and wanted to catch him during his lunch break. 

When I came to the junction of Dorset Street and Blessington Street the traffic light had turned red for me. I saw a stationary bus on Blesinngton Street and decided I could shoot across before the bus moved. But what I didn’t see was another bus which was moving. 

Had that bus not slowed down most likely I would now be in hospital with broken bones, indeed, I could be dead. It was the careful driving of the bus driver that saved me. He/she beeped their horn but at that stage I was on the far side of the street. I was somewhat shaken for a second or two but brushed it off and got on with my business. Yes, I was in time to make my delivery.

It was later that night in bed I thought of my appalling behaviour. What had I lost my legs and been wheelchair-bound for the rest of my life? It would have been no accident; every moment of it was my fault and no one else’s. And what about the driver, the trauma I would have caused her/him? I can well imagine I did give them a terrible shock.

I often chat with bus drivers and hear first-hand what they have to put up with every day. They do an extraordinary job for the travelling public.

It’s easy to blame everyone else for the road carnage. I hope and pray I’ve learned my lesson and practise what I preach. I wish I were in a position to apologise to the bus driver who was far more careful than I.