Bus drivers use peer-based system to help workers calm down after an emotional incident

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – We warned you yesterday about research that reveals you are 10 times more likely to get into a crash if you’re overcome by strong emotion.

So, how do people who drive for a living cope with extreme sadness, anger or frustration?

The Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) has a tactic to help keep its members safely focused on their jobs and from getting pre-occupied with emotional situations.

“Having a stressed-out transit operator with the most expensive cargo in the world — you have a hundred people on your bus — there’s no value to that. You want to make sure the operator is in the right frame of mind,” says Bus Drivers’ Union president Nathan Woods.

Woods tells us they have “defusers.”

“They are a peer-based system. So, they’re transit operators or other CMBC employees that have been trained in how to assist employees in defusing themselves from the issue or incident that they’ve just been exposed to,” he explains.

Those issues range from upset customers to angry drivers making things difficult or even dangerous on the road.

“If we are in an exasperated moment, we can request a defuser to come and assist us. Typically, that’s not done while we’re driving. We’ll end up parking the bus. We can stop and ask for assistance to try and calm ourselves down.”

Dealing with hundreds of passengers means getting emotional can be a daily occurrence. The defusers are available at the push of a button.

“If the driver is stressed, T-Comm will recognize that and offer a defuser. So, we stay in place typically or we go back to our depot and we get assistance in defusing,” says Woods.

Drivers can pull over, wait for a defuser to respond immediately and then chose to either stay on the road pull themselves out of service.