Monday, August 18, 2008

An OK Driver.

The little plaque above the driver's head reads E. Camara. Since I started riding the ACF almost a year ago E. Has been my and 55 other's morning chauffeur. He started driving for Martz just a few weeks after I started commuting by bus into NYC.

E.'s first week was hell, he missed the NJ turnpike north exit and ended up taking the ACF to Jersey City. He was a lost backwoods Virginia Blue Ridge Mountain boy. A number of the PA people were freaking out, E. was on his cell phone trying to get directions to the countries largest city that we all can see across the Hudson river. We past by 3 NJ Path train stations he would not let people off, he spent over an hour taking in the lovely sites of Jersey City, and then going all the way back to Newark to catch the Lincoln Tunnel.

After making 56 passengers over 2 hours late to work he had a Martz Bus Co. Supervisor ride shotgun with him to show him directions the next day. Now he know's where NYC is.

Only one other negative driving incident has happened since then involving E. When coming out of the tunnel, the driver needs to make a very tight "U" turn to enter the Port Authority Bus Terminal. E. did not take it wide enough and hit another bus's back corner with about ten feet our bus grinding the other. E. stops the ACF, flings opens the door and runs out into 40th street. 3 little old ladies start shrieking, telling everyone "you don't know where you are stay on the bus, It's not safe out there". As soon as I heard that I bolted out the open door and leisurely walked to the subway.

E. Camara has been an excellent and aggressive driver, no more wrong turns getting lost, or grinding the aluminum siding off the side of the bus. Just one mysterious thing, when ever he drives over 72mph this buzzer rings and he has to flip a switch to turn off the buzzing. He flips that switch at least 20 times every morning trip to NYC. E. Camara pushes the 72mph envelope, and I love it.

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