A bus driver with several crashes in a short period of time was fired. He took his case to an appeals board. His defense: “I’m not the worst driver.”
Alan Slater was a driver for New Zealand Bus (NZ Bus) in Auckland. He had 10 crashes in less than 18 months, and the company fired him.
Slater filed a case for unjustified dismissal with the New Zealand Employment Relations Board (ERA).
In his own defense, Slater said, “I swear, I’m not the worst bus driver in Auckland.”
If not, remind us not to take a bus while visiting there.
Slater started driving for NZ Bus in July 2008.
Within two weeks, managers were expressing concerns about his driving, including that he had “trouble staying in lane.”
In October 2008, he had his first fender bender when he hit a garbage can.
Another time he drove the wrong way through a bus wash.
In May 2009, Slater attended a defensive driver course. In the same month, he collided with another vehicle.
In the next five months, he had four more crashes, three of them with stationary objects.
In March 2010 he hit a concrete post. That’s when NZ Bus let him go.
“With the amount of driving bus drivers do, there are bound to be a few scrapes,” Slater said.
But the ERA didn’t see it that way. It ruled Slater’s firing was justifiable, and if anything, NZ Bus had been “overly tolerant.”
Have you ever had an accident-prone employee with this “accidents will happen” attitude? Let us know about it in the Comments Box below.
