A small thing transit workers do that really proves the media doesn’t care

I’m a student and I ride the bus almost every day to class. I’ve had a transit worker almost die in front of me when a car ran him over because he wasn’t paying attention. I’ve had a bus driver call in sick because some Karen passenger yelled at her for not lowering her mask to speak to her. I’ve had drivers call in sick because passengers literally spit on them for enforcing transit policies. I’ve had drivers nearly get into fights with passengers for telling them to lower their transit mask. <br><br>I’ve had to call 911 because a drunk homeless person got on and started throwing up in the aisle and the driver didn’t know what to do. Despite 911 being called, the authorities never showed up. <br><br>I’ve had drivers be late because they literally had medical issues while driving and had to pull over to throw up.<br><br>I’ve had a driver ask the passengers for advice on whether he should go to the hospital or not because he had a heart attack while driving and the dispatcher was telling him to finish his shift. This happened less than a year ago. <br><br>I’ve had drivers cry because they had to pick up a dead body that fell onto the road.<br><br>There have been instances where drivers have been shot or stabbed for trying to enforce the fare. I’ve had a driver call in sick because a gang member tried to shoot him and missed. <br><br>A bus driver was literally killed last year when a gang member opened fire at another gang member and the driver took the bullet.<br><br>There have been many instances of transit workers being harassed and spat on for enforcing the mask policy. If you think it’s not a big deal, you’re a fucking idiot. Imagine if someone spat on you for telling them to wear a mask at the grocery store. Imagine going to work and someone spitting on you because you told them to lower their mask to speak to you. It’s not some imaginary fear, people need to get off their fucking high horses. <br><br>There have been many instances of transit workers being sexually harassed and assaulted. There have been instances of passengers exposing themselves to drivers and passengers. Many transit workers are eithertoo afraid to speak up, don’t know how to report it, don’t know there are resources available, or are too busy to report it. Many transit workers transit workers also don’t report it because they’re transit workers don’t receive training on sexual harassment. The training is mostly for when a passenger is sexually harassing another passenger. <br><br>As for passengers, you would not believe the number of passengers that have literally died on the bus. I remember a year ago, a homeless man fell asleep on the bus. He was dead less than three hours later. There have been so many instances of passengers dying because of their mental state and the driver didn’t notice. There have been instances of drivers noticing and calling 911 and the authorities not showing up. <br><br>A lot of times, drivers either don’t notice or don’t care. That’s part of being a transit worker, having to If you notice something, you need to call dispatch and ask them for advice. Sometimes dispatch advises them to drop passengers off at a stop and let someone else deal with it on the next loop. Many transit drivers don’t care because they don’t want to lose their seniority. <br><br>This isn’t transit workers being lazy, it’s transit workers receive either inadequate training or no training on how to deal with a passenger dying on the bus. They don’t know how to do CPR. They don’t know how to deal with an overdose. They don’t know how to deal with a medical emergency. They literally just call dispatch and transit dispatch doesn’t know what to do either. They literally just call 911 and the authorities don’t show up. <br><br>I’m not saying all transit workers are good. There are a lot of bad transit workers. I’m saying THINGS ARE NOT OKAY. People literally die in front of transit workers and there’s no outrage. There’s no sympathy. There’s no empathy. There’s no kindness. There’s no compassion. There’s no humanity. <br><br>The transit agency knows transit workers are literally dying for nothing. They’re dying for a job they don’t If transit workers were treated better, they’d be better to passengers. But passengers treat transit workers like shit. <br><br>If passengers treated transit workers with respect and compassion, transit workers would treat passengers the same. <br><br>I’m so fucking sick of the media acting like transit workers aren’t dying. I’m sick of people acting like they don’t fucking care. I’m sick of people pretending like everything is okay. It’s fucking not. <br><br>Transit workers deserve better. Passengers deserve better. Everyone deserves better.<br><br>EDIT: this post is mostly about transit workers but also about how passengers dying isn’t being addressed by transit agencies. One passenger literally died because the driver didn’t know what to do when a passenger was having a stroke and took them to a stop instead of calling 911. If transit workers were better trained, passengers wouldn’t fucking die. <br><br>EDIT 2: I don’t know if transit workers being paid more would help because If transit workers transit fares were literally free, transit would cease to exist. I don’t know what the answer is, I just know that the transit system is fucked. If transit workers receive training but are still underpaid and If transit workers were treated better, maybe they’d care more about their job but I don’t know transit workers receive training but are paid the same, maybe they’d care transit workers were paid more but received the same training, maybe they’d care more but I don’t know.