Meanwhile, back in Japan
"If the driver seems unwell..." - Bus Retrofitting in the New Normal Era
When is the last time someone fainted in your presence? As far as I can recall, the only time for me was at a high school assembly in Japan, on a hot day, during an interminable speech by the principal. All students were forced to stand for the entire speech, of course, and one keeled over. Fainting while standing at attention for long periods in the heat and humidity is not unheard of, but these days we have athletes passing out or dropping dead on the court and field, and pilots, truckers, and bus drivers sitting comfortably in their air-conditioned planes, trucks and coaches, keeling over at the wheel. The bus companies are taking precautions and preparing accordingly in the post-jab New Normal Era.
Here’s a text I got a text from a friend in Japan:
DAN!
I rode a cross country bus yesterday with the family after our arrival to Fukuoka. After leaving the station, they played a video. It was all about the new system they’ve installed in the bus. There was a Safety Card with the same info.
The bus company went to great expense to install this system. The first of its kind that I’ve seen. I’ve never heard of a precautionary expenditure like this unless you looked at the data and thought a driver keeling over dead was a distinct possibility.
Hmmmm, I wonder what would be causing drivers to become incapacitated at a high enough rate to warrant the huge amount of money required to retrofit all the busses?