Page 2 - The Chronicle, Thursday, April 8, 1982
The Bus
System
From Page 1
Task Force
From Page 1
ed the dirty floor. The
driver, a stout man of about
35, snapped out of his gaze
and started to pull away
from the curb. An elderly
lady came running across
the street toward the bus
door waving her hands. She
banged on the door and the
driver glanced in her direc
tion and reluctantly let her
in. “Whew!” she said,
pulling herself up the
steps. “You almost left
me.” The driver snapped
back, “I could have,” and
turned again to look out the
window.
The lady sat down and the
driver pulled off again,
almost hitting a little black
and white MG that was
rounding the curve. He
huffed and waited for the
car to turn the corner, then
started to pull away from
the curb again, ignoring a
man who was banging on
the door. The driver sped
away, leaving the man
standing near the curb. I
looked at the driver, who
seemed totally detached
from the people sitting
behind him. The ride was
rough and he seemed more
preoccupied with the road
than with the comfort of the
passengers who were being
tossed and thrown as he
veered sharply to the left
and right.
Someone signaled to get
off, but the driver had
picked up too much speed.
He slammed on the brake,
almost throwing everyone
forward and went back to
staring out the left window.
An elderly couple slowly
got up and made their way
to the front of the bus.
Another man hopped off
the bus quickly and the
driver turned around and
pulled off without checHiHg'
to make sure everyone was
safely off the bus. The old
man, who made it as far as
my seat, started to fall.
“Woahl!!” a few passen
gers screamed from the
back of the bus. The driver
slammed the brake. Tjie
lady was clutching a post to
keep from falling and I
caught the old man, who,
thank goodness, was light
enough for me to hold.
“Are you all right? Are
you all right?” I asked, but
he didn’t seem to hear. He
made his way to the front of
the bus and got off along
with the lady. My driver
looked at them, waiting
impatiently for them to get
off the bus.
I exchanged glances with
a lady who was sitting
across from me and she
shook her head in disgust.
The next stop, we both got
off and I stood watching my
driver speed away, wonder
ing how badly the old man
would have been hurt if I
had ridden a different bus
and had not been there to
catch him.
After walking around the
block, I returned to the bus
stop to catch my driver back
into town. “You been wait
ing for the bus long?” a
young brown-haired
woman wearing jeans said
as she approached the stop.
“About five minutes,” I
answered. We struck up a
conversation, during which
she talked about smoking
on the bus.
“You're only supposed to
smoke on the rear of the
bus, but it depends on what
driver you have,” she said.
“The man who drives this
bus doesn’t care if you
smoke anywhere. In fact,
some drivers will smoke
themselves,” she informed
me.
The bus pulled up and my
driver looked as disgrunt
led as he did when he
pulled off 25 minutes ago.
A man boarded the bus
with a cigar in his mouth.
See Page 5
Mrs. Newell noted also that the
number of black policemen may in
fluence the rapport between policemen
and East Winston neighborhoods.
Although she said the Task Force has
not, examined that question yet, “my
gut feeling would be that we don’t have
enough.”
One recommendation that the Task
Force has made to the police depart-'
ment is that it consider having its
patrols in East Winston “get out of
their cars sometimes and walk a beat,”
Mrs. Smith said. “The policeman
needs to see what’s behind some of
those faces that he sees every day.”
If policemen did walk beats, she said,
“people would be less apprehensive
about approaching them and reporting
things.”
Another concern of the organization
is the presence of “liquor houses” that
serve alcohol illegally. In a written
report, the Task Force cites “at least
five or six ” such houses in East
Winston. “There is high visibility by
neighbors and police officials,” the
report says, “yet these houses appear
to flourish and continue.”
“1 grew up here and I saw them when
I was walking home from school,”
Mrs. Smith said.
Also included in the report as con
tributing factors to or results of crime
in East Winston are:
• In 1981, East Winston had 643 house
breakings, or one house breaking for
every 10 homes.
• Of the 6,914 housing units in the
East Ward, 1,046 are sub-standard,
834 unfit for human habitation.
• Of the community’s total number of
households, 1,379 had an average in
come of only $3,854 annually while 518
households averaged $19,953 annually,
the low and high ends of the economic
range in East Winston.
• Of the 12,443 adult arrests in
Winston-Salem in 1981,7,384 involved
blacks.
• The largest number of crimes are
committed by the age group from 25 to
39, which, according to Employment
Security Commission, .figures, Js the
largest age group-taBbntployed-in the
ioityViaMTHAqaa 01l40fiT03J3 1.
• “There appears to be no coordinated
effort with citizens and police working
together as a team to combat and
eliminate crime.”
On the subject of the East Winston
robber, Mrs. Smith said, “My
thought is that there is not an East
Winston robber. There are many East
Winston robbers.”
Mrs. Smith said the Task Force has
“gathered steam,” but she is realistic
about what it can accomplish. “I don’t
see how this Crime Task Force or any
other can relieve the frustration of
everybody,” she said. “If we can
relieve the frustration of a few, I would
consider us successful.”
Mrs. Smith also said that a lack of
money may also limit what the group
may accomplish.
“So much of it involves money that
just isn’t available,” she said. “If we
get someone to speak to our group,
we’ll have to bake cookies (to pay
them), I guess.”
Recommendations that the Task
Force has made to the police depart
ment include:
• The joining of the police department
and the Crirrie Task Force in a town
meeting “initiating an education drive
in crime prevention, identifying ex
isting programs and intitiating future
programs.”
• Re-institution of the Neighborhood
Crime Watch program.
• Cooperation among the Task Force,
agencies and police in developing pro
grams to combat and prevent crime
among people 25 to 39 years old.
' • Concerted efforts to eliminate East
Winston’s liquor houses.
• Continuation of the crime preven
tion program for youth, involving the
Task Force, police, schools and the
community, and the initiation of a pro
gram to include families.
• Work by the Task Force with the
tenants of Happy Hil and the Courts to
reduce neighborhood and family
crime.
• Development through the Task
Force, police and other agencies joint
efforts for education of crime detec
tion and the programs geared toward
crime reduction.
• As the Task Force’s objectives
become measurable, the initiation of a
pilot project in the East Ward,
“hopefully to decrease crime by
whatever method.”
• The elimination by the Task Force of
houses in East Winston that are unfit
for human habitation.
• Additional information on arrests
according to socio-economic status.
• The meeting of heads of youth-
oriented agencies, such as the YMCA,
Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and others to
coordinate efforts in educational and
recreational activities for youth.
• The beginning of “an all-out effort”
to reduce black-on-black crime.
The crucial factor as to the success or
failure of the East Winston Crime Task
Force, said Virginia Newell, is the com
munity. “Crime in any community is
there,” she said, “because citizens
allow it to stay there.”
“If we don’t work with the police,”
Mrs. Smith added, “it makes their jobs
twice as hard.”
Other members of the East Winston
Crime Task Force include: Mrs.
Georgia Moore, John Litaker, George
Newell, Johnny Johnson, Mrs. Hattie
Brown, F.H. Brown Jr. and James
Sims.
Ritchey From Page 1
displeased with the transit authority’s
handling of complaints. “I know that I
have complained several times,” writes
Melanie Collins, in a letter to the editor
this issue, “and there never seemed to be
a resolution. Nobody called me back; they
just said I’m sorry, we’re doing the best
we can.”
James Ritchey, general manager for the
Winston-Salem Transit Authority, said
despite complaints about the conditions
of the buses and the drivers, Winston-
Salem has some good operators. Ritchey
acknowledged that there are conflicts
between passengers and drivers, but said
when drivers are dealing with 10,000
people daily, occasional disputes will
probably occur.
“There are 60 different drivers working
for the Winston-Salem transit system,”
Ritchey said, “and we work with them to
help them do the best possible job.”
Ritchey said the transit system encour
ages citizens to voice their complaints to
help correct problem drivers. “If a severe
problem occurs, then the driver will be
disciplined,” he said. “If the problem
isn’t severe, we work with the driver to
help him better deal with the public.” He
added that the Transit Authority cannot
take action on complaints unless certain
information is provided. “We must have
the exact time the incident occurred, the
route number, the number of the vehicle,
and the name and phone number of the
person with the complaint,” he said.
“We sometimes have up to three drivers
on one route, and without this kind of
information, we can’t take action and the
situation won’t be corrected.”
Ritchey said that smoking is allowed in
the back of the bus and in some instances
would be tolerated in the front. “If there
is only one person smoking or if the bus
isn’t crowded and no one if offended, the
driver may not say anything to someone
smoking in the front of the bus,” he said.
The Transit Authority has an excellent
safety record, Ritchey said in response to
charges that some operators speed and
are reckless drivers. Last year, from July
to February, there was a total of eight
chargeable accidents, or accidents caused
solely by the bus driver, he said.
‘ 'This is less than one chargeable acci
dent per 100,000 miles,’’Ritchey said,
“and we feel this is fabulous.” He added
that in only one of those eight accidents,
an accident in which two buses collided
downtown, were passengers seriously
hurt.
Keeping the bus clean isn’t a direct
responsibility of the driver, Ritchey said.
Buses are brought into the shop daily to
be fueled and cleaned, he said. “Once a
week all the windows, ledges, and the
outside of the bus is washed,” he added,
“and every three months the bus is
completely washed inside and out. Dirty
buses are a result of the passengers
throwing garbage all over the floor. It is
up to the driver to try to help keep the bus
clean, but we don’t expect him to pick up
garbage every trip.”
Ritchey said checkers are frequently
sent but to ride the bus undercover and
observe drivers to insure there are no
serious safety problems and to give a full
analysis of the service. “We have a
number of drivers over the past year who
have lost their jobs as a result of the
checker’s report,” he said, “but if these
complaints are true, then evidently
someone has forgotten.”
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