In Tallinn the bus driver behind the wheel must not trust anyone and his eyes must be everywhere, the Tallinn bus drivers spoke in the program “Hommik Anuga” and described the most extreme situations they encountered while driving around the steering wheel.
Bus drivers Gerli Adamson and Imre Peek said in the program that driving the bus requires calm nerves, especially when road conditions are difficult. However, even they sometimes had to hold on tightly to the steering wheel to stay calm.
“Overtaking is situations in which the bus driver is forced to brake more sharply or change direction more sharply to avoid an accident. When such a situation occurs, the bus driver is faced with a choice very difficult,” Peek said.
According to Adamson, it happens very often that people come from the left row and turn right in front of the bus, thinking that the bus is going slower and they manage to slide in front of it. Peek added that a nervous driver can be seen even from afar in the flow of traffic.
Hannes Falten, director of the Tallinn City Transport Service (TLT), said that according to long-term bus drivers, there are days when the traffic is even more nervous and that’s when the professionalism of the driver comes into play of the bus.
At the same time, bus drivers did not notice that some brands of cars are more dangerous than others. Adamson noted that drivers who have never driven larger vehicles tend to behave dangerously in traffic.
“They can’t imagine a bus, a truck, bigger than a car. Their masses are different, braking distances, movements, everything is enormously different. They can’t imagine this difference,” he said.
Peek recalled a case when he was driving from Freedom Square in Tallinn in the direction of the Kaarli church, and when he had already arrived near the church, being in the leftmost lane, he was about to turn left, when suddenly he drove off an electric scooter into him from around the corner. On that occasion, however, the accident was avoided.
According to bus drivers, these cases are their daily life and therefore their eyes have to look everywhere while driving: front, back, side and even behind.
As for situations where the bus driver crosses the road at a red light, drivers said that their attention may be distracted or they don’t want to brake suddenly. However, they emphasized that each of these initiatives has its own story: is it human error or some other reason.
“I don’t believe that someone comes to work in the morning and has the goal of going through the intersection on a red light. I don’t believe that,” Peek said, adding that this is a violation that cannot be excused.
Bus driver Imre Peek (right) and TLT service director Hannes Falten. Author/source: Georg Savisaar/ERR
2024-01-28 09:04:00
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