A Bus Terminal in Florida

Averting Tragedies at the Bus Terminal

I felt bad for the kids.

It was a hot summer afternoon in Florida. I was a security guard assigned to a transit bus terminal in Clearwater. It was a tough job; not a week went by that I didn’t need to call the cops or paramedics.

People wouldn’t watch their kids

The adults irritated me, but the way some people treated their children pissed me off to no end. The busses would enter the terminal; A circular driveway with numbered slots assigned to different routes. The drivers would pull into the slots and load and unload passengers. The drivers would sometimes kill the engines and take short breaks.

The bus drivers did walkarounds

Like a pilot on a plane, the driver would walk around the bus. He would be looking for anything unusual, under-inflated tires, leaks, stuff like that.

The pigeons had lived there for years

At the terminal, under the roof, there was a nest in the metal beams. The mated pair of pigeons had lived there for years, raising who knows how many generations of hatchlings. The pigeons had little fear of humans. The humans, most of them anyway, treated them with kindness. Everyone fed the pigeons.

Where was the child’s mother?

One of the birds was pecking crumbs off the concrete. When a small child decided to make friends. The child followed the pigeon, heading under the bus. Minutes before the child was under the bus. I came around the corner. “Get away from the bus,” I yelled. The child ran off. The bus pulled away from the berth.

We used the Janitor’s closet for an office

I had to go to the janitor’s closet and shut the door to calm down. I was so upset. If I would have come around the corner a minute later, I would have seen the death of a child.

It wasn’t an isolated incident

Episodes like this were a common occurrence. The terminal wasn’t the safest place, that’s why they had security guards, but parents let their children run wild. I had to check the men’s room every time I walked around the terminal. The restroom was a popular place to get high and guzzle a bottle.

Small children alone in public restrooms. What could go wrong?

There were many a time that I saw a small child in the men’s room playing in the sink, no parent or guardian in sight. That child could come to harm in minutes, but mom or dad would be too engrossed in their cellphone to notice.

I’m glad no one was hurt

I’m thankful that no child died on my shift while I was there. The greatest fear I had working on that post was that something would happen before I had a chance to stop it. Please keep an eye on your children because bad things can happen to them faster than you realize.