Alice Wood knew the city bus was crowded when she climbed aboard in mid-May, but it didn't bother her.
Wood has no car, so the 62-year-old Forsyth Tech student uses public transportation to get around. The bus had picked her up at a stop on New Walkertown Road, and Wood knew that in a few blocks, a number of people would get off.
So she got on the bus anyway, a backpack of textbooks in one hand, a Food Lion bag of snacks in the other. She had just climbed the steps, just started down the aisle in the middle of the bus when, she said, the driver hit the gas.
"He took off real fast," Wood said. "And I ended up in the lap of another passenger."
Wood said she was shaken by the incident. Her neck hurt. Her ankle swelled. She felt the driver had been unprofessional, and she wanted to do something about it.
So she called Winston-Salem City Hall. It was, after all, a city bus. But what she was told, she said, is that city officials could do nothing about it because city bus drivers are not employed by the city but by a private corporation.
"Nobody did anything about it," she said. "I wasn't able to go to work because my ankle (was) swollen up. ... I pressed my way anyway and came to school, because if I flunk out, then it's on me, but I couldn't work, and I don't think it's fair that nothing happened."
The city of Winston-Salem owns the city buses and pays for the drivers. But, because of both state and federal law, city officials have little authority over the drivers, said Assistant City Manager Greg Turner.
State law prevents municipalities from employing unionized workers, Turner said, and federal law allows city bus drivers to be unionized. So the city of Winston-Salem contracts with a private company, Veolia Transportation, to hire and employ the drivers.
The city pays Veolia $233,500 a year, city records show. The city has contracted with various iterations of the company — it has changed names and hands over the years, Turner said — for at least two decades.
"We can't tell the company how to deal with their employees," Turner said.
Instead, the city sets policies for how bus drivers should behave on the job and asks Veolia to follow those policies. The policies are set by the Winston-Salem Transit Authority board of directors, an eight-member board appointed by the Winston-Salem City Council. The Winston-Salem Transit Authority also has the power to issue contracts related to public transportation, Turner said.
When there is a complaint about a bus driver that could involve a rider's health — such as happened in Wood's case — the city's Risk Management Office steps in. The office deals with workers' compensation claims and other claims against the city.
Turner said Wood's case went to the office, which had not made a decision as to whether she was entitled to compensation for what happened on the bus.
Wood said she primarily wants an apology.
"I'm just sick and tired ... about people (who are) in control ... looking down on people that can't do anything," she said.
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