I Too, Got Caught by the Door of the Bus

A similar experience with someone here, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…

The UDN papers reported yesterday in a special report, that a professor from N.T.U. took the bus home, and because the driver didn’t pay attention to how someone was getting on from the back, the professor’s foot got caught in the door, and was dragged for hundreds of meters onward, he’d finally broken free, and the passersby called the police and he was lifted to the hospitals, checked into the I.C.U.

Three weeks before this particular incident, I too, got caught in the bus doors.

On May 20^th, I went to the meetings at Taipei city government, I took Route 288 got off at Sun Yatsen Memorial Hall.  I’d rung the bell as the bus passed the last station, I’d walked to the backdoor, scanned by ticket, waited to get off.  There’s not that many people onboard the bus, there wasn’t anybody in front of me, as the bus door swung open, I got off, but, the bus door suddenly closed, clamped me tightly, then the bus started moving forward.  I’d screamed aloud, “I’m getting off here!”, and others onboard the bus called out too, that was when the driver reopened the door, but nobody said an apology, nor showed any concerns for my wellbeing.

photo from onlinean elderly woman about to fall down as the bus started rolling

Thankfully, I wasn’t, DRAGGED, and I’m quite agile still, no osteoporosis, just felt that slight strain pull from my muscle on my back.  AS I’d arrived to the city government, I’d felt the need, to report the incident to the transportation department, the man in charge of the meeting I was going to accompanied me to the office, and demanded that trainings on safety measures be given to the drivers.  The man we spoke to told us, that it wasn’t his department’s responsibility, but he would be more than happy to pass the message on.  And, several days later, I’d received a call from the transportation department, they’d reviewed over the surveillance, and will handle the matter accordingly, I’d reiterated how dangerous it was, hoped, that this will not occur again, and yet again, it’s, happened again.

The network of buses, it’s something that those of us who don’t live in the city of Taipei envied about.  Because the stations are shorter compared to the MRT stations, it’d become, more popular for the elderly residents locally.  And, the safety awareness mostly focused on the statistics of pedestrian fatalities, and yet, those cases of people not dying immediately, those unreported incidents, not listed as a matter of concerns, may be the huge accidents too, and caused a ton of damages; this could’ve well been, prevented, this should NOT be ignored by the departments available.

Because as we age, we have a slower reaction time, and most often than not, we’re, still getting on the buses, and the bus started moving forward, before we sat ourselves down, or hold onto something, and this is the bus driver’s fault, because the bus driver has a multiple camera view by his seat, and he could be watching everybody getting onboard and off, and yet, this matter is still being, IGNORED, because we can’t change the systems from the top of the food chains!