Bus accidents

Personally, I think that being a bus driver is about the hardest job around, especially because the number of potential incidents on even one run probably number in the thousands.

Put in that context, 2,000 accidents in the course of a year for the Metrobus system in DC is pretty minimal, despite the front page screaming headline in the Examiner, "Metro seeing increase in Metrobus crashes."

That being said, focusing resources on driver training and removing drivers with a high propensity of accidents makes sense.

From the article:

In the first eight months of this year, Metrobuses have been involved in 1,649 crashes. That's an average of 6.8 crashes a day, up from the 6.3 per day average of the previous three years.

Bus operators could have prevented 41 percent of the accidents, or about 2.8 per day, up from a 36 percent average in the past three years.

"We do everything we can to keep the number down and we're doing as much training as we can," said Jack Requa, Metro's assistant general manager for bus operations. "But the most congested city, or one of the top three in the country, provides a challenge every day."

Metro holds its drivers to a higher standard than police or insurers. The agency may consider a crash preventable even if another vehicle runs a red light before slamming into the bus because Metrobus operators are professional drivers trained to drive defensively.