This video of an OC Transpo bus driver losing it on a passenger has gone viral in Ottawa today.
While the driver's reaction was over the top, I don't think it's clear from this video that he was necessarily in the wrong.
From the YouTube description, this took place when only two people were in the bus and the passenger in question, who has been identified as being mentally ill (or at least that's what people say), is very likely harassing the bus driver. Which at the very least creates a safety concern for the driver who must pay attention to the road.
While the bus driver's threat of violence is over the top, we can't simply assume that such threats were genuine. They very well could have simply been a frustrated attempt to get the passenger to back off and sit down.
If the passenger was mentally ill, one has to sympathize with the driver who could very well be wondering to himself whether said mentally ill person might pull out a knife and stab him or some other such irrational act (remember the story of the man on the greyhound bus who attacked a fellow passenger and literally cut his head off?)
Given he is driving the bus, he would be unable to defend himself in the event of an attack - hence why you might see such an over aggressive reaction on the bus driver's part.
If the bus driver truly was a mean-spirited bully, he could have easily just tapped the brakes and sent the passenger flying. I've seen bus drivers do that when no one was bugging them (I'm assuming they simply got a kick out of seeing people tossed about in the bus).
I think the real issue in all this is how we handle mental illness in society. In my opinion, bus drivers should not be expected to be able to handle mentally ill persons. I've seen bus drivers have to deal with mentally ill people on the bus who are causing problems, and I felt really bad for the driver because that's not their job. Their job is to drive the bus, not be a security guard.
In this situation, I think the driver should have simply stopped the bus and called the police and let them deal with the young man. Too often with mental illness people simply get angry at the person who is behaving strangely, instead of handing the situation over to authorities. And I think people in general don't think that you can call the police over a mentally ill person - 'acting strange' isn't a crime after all.
Yet, by handing things over to the authorities at least then whoever the person's care taker is becomes aware that their behavior needs to be addressed.
I don't really see this situation as anyone's fault really, it's merely the outcome associated with mental illness. The bus driver was simply reacting to being provoked and the passenger was likely behaving in ways out of his control.
Now if the bus driver had actually hit him, or tapped the brakes, then it would be a different story.
Either society puts more resources into addressing mental illness, or this kind of thing will keep happening (and this is not a one-off, anyone who takes the bus knows this stuff happens fairly regularly).
The PR lesson of this story, especially for OC, is that we live in a big brother world now. Everyone has a camera on their cell phone. The days of assuming that unpalatable events that occur now and then will simply go unnoticed by the general public are over. Which means organizations need to equip their staff with greater 'crisis prevention' knowledge so that they don't get caught in a situation where they don't know how to respond.
As we see here, this is an incident where only three people were present, and yet, because of video, everyone in Ottawa is now aware and talking about.
Organizational protocols for professional behavior must take in to account that someone is always watching AND must equip employees with the ability to handle a wide variety of situations that can occur when servicing the public.
So my take on this video is that it says:
1) We have a long way to go in terms of treating the mentally ill (if not for this video I bet no one would ever even know this situation took place, and I'm sure now that people know, the young man will get additional assistance in handling whatever issues he might have).
2) Organizations are not equipping their employees with the situational awareness and response knowledge required to operate effectively in a big brother / iPhone everywhere world.
While the driver's reaction was over the top, I don't think it's clear from this video that he was necessarily in the wrong.
From the YouTube description, this took place when only two people were in the bus and the passenger in question, who has been identified as being mentally ill (or at least that's what people say), is very likely harassing the bus driver. Which at the very least creates a safety concern for the driver who must pay attention to the road.
While the bus driver's threat of violence is over the top, we can't simply assume that such threats were genuine. They very well could have simply been a frustrated attempt to get the passenger to back off and sit down.
If the passenger was mentally ill, one has to sympathize with the driver who could very well be wondering to himself whether said mentally ill person might pull out a knife and stab him or some other such irrational act (remember the story of the man on the greyhound bus who attacked a fellow passenger and literally cut his head off?)
Given he is driving the bus, he would be unable to defend himself in the event of an attack - hence why you might see such an over aggressive reaction on the bus driver's part.
If the bus driver truly was a mean-spirited bully, he could have easily just tapped the brakes and sent the passenger flying. I've seen bus drivers do that when no one was bugging them (I'm assuming they simply got a kick out of seeing people tossed about in the bus).
I think the real issue in all this is how we handle mental illness in society. In my opinion, bus drivers should not be expected to be able to handle mentally ill persons. I've seen bus drivers have to deal with mentally ill people on the bus who are causing problems, and I felt really bad for the driver because that's not their job. Their job is to drive the bus, not be a security guard.
In this situation, I think the driver should have simply stopped the bus and called the police and let them deal with the young man. Too often with mental illness people simply get angry at the person who is behaving strangely, instead of handing the situation over to authorities. And I think people in general don't think that you can call the police over a mentally ill person - 'acting strange' isn't a crime after all.
Yet, by handing things over to the authorities at least then whoever the person's care taker is becomes aware that their behavior needs to be addressed.
I don't really see this situation as anyone's fault really, it's merely the outcome associated with mental illness. The bus driver was simply reacting to being provoked and the passenger was likely behaving in ways out of his control.
Now if the bus driver had actually hit him, or tapped the brakes, then it would be a different story.
Either society puts more resources into addressing mental illness, or this kind of thing will keep happening (and this is not a one-off, anyone who takes the bus knows this stuff happens fairly regularly).
The PR lesson of this story, especially for OC, is that we live in a big brother world now. Everyone has a camera on their cell phone. The days of assuming that unpalatable events that occur now and then will simply go unnoticed by the general public are over. Which means organizations need to equip their staff with greater 'crisis prevention' knowledge so that they don't get caught in a situation where they don't know how to respond.
As we see here, this is an incident where only three people were present, and yet, because of video, everyone in Ottawa is now aware and talking about.
Organizational protocols for professional behavior must take in to account that someone is always watching AND must equip employees with the ability to handle a wide variety of situations that can occur when servicing the public.
So my take on this video is that it says:
1) We have a long way to go in terms of treating the mentally ill (if not for this video I bet no one would ever even know this situation took place, and I'm sure now that people know, the young man will get additional assistance in handling whatever issues he might have).
2) Organizations are not equipping their employees with the situational awareness and response knowledge required to operate effectively in a big brother / iPhone everywhere world.
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