Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Panic On the Bus

Before I forget it I want to relay (another) bus adventure. I caught the 21 express from downtown to West Seattle last week. The 21X gets on the highway for a bit. This particular day the bus was packed, and I was standing at the mid section (it was an extra long accordion bus). The driver had to swerve when we were at full speed and because the bus was fully loaded it began to sway from side to side, getting more violent with every rebound so much so that everyone had to grab for something to brace themselves with. So much so that those in the back of the bus, due to the whip effect felt it the most and, well, freaked out. One lady screamed "There's a problem back here!", someone yelled, "There's a problem with the bus!" another younger girl then added, "Stop. Stop! Stop!" and before you knew it it was panic. Real panic. Everyone was yelling, much to the amazement of the people in the front of the bus. The driver, occpied by his obviously challenging drive, didn't stop the bus on the highway (thankfully), but kept on. At the next/first stop it was business as usual. Group panic passed. Note that I took this pic of the guy in front of me, on the bus, seconds before the swerve.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Crowd mantra:
"A 'person' is smart, but 'people' are dumb, panicy, stupid animals."