Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Is there a full moon?

Or is there simply a wave of insanity in DC, brought on by the exceptional, summertime weather?

Today I saw emergency vehicles flying all over the place, cars plowed into other cars (a six-car pile up over by IKEA in College Park, among other accidents), and generally odd behavior. The freakiest thing I saw all day - and the thing that gave me the creeps - was a Metro bus turning left from Connecticut onto K Street, NW. As the bus turned, the display on the back changed from the route number to this message: 911 CALL COPS. Over and over again, the message rolled as the bus turned. So, I reached for my phone and called. I have no idea if it was a fluke or a mistake or something real. But, when you're two blocks from the White House in the middle of rush hour traffic, it's best not to take chances. I'd love to know how many 911 calls came in. I wonder how many folks actually pay attention to the bus displays? Normally, had there not been a complete jam at that intersection, I wouldn't have noticed a thing out of place.

Nothing on WTOP, so I hope it was just "driver error." Lord knows, there's been a lot of "driver error" with DC buses lately...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

One morning (in December I think) as my bus approached I saw the same message, "Emergency - Call 911!" on the front of my bus.

When I boarded, I told the driver and after he uttered an expletive, he changed it. He explained to me that they use 3-digit codes on the box that decides what message to put up, and my bus route and the 911 message are one digit apart.

Funnily (or scarily), he said it had to have been that way for 45 minutes (when he started that leg of the route) and he hadn't had a single call from dispatch about it.

Bill said...

Strange... you would think if they're using 3 digit codes they would use 911 for 911. Unless maybe Andrew's route is 912...

Regarding the general logginess of people in springtime (leading to all sorts of bizarre accidents and such), I recall from my years in D.C. that used to happen every spring, too. And come to think of it, didn't we the same thing about springtime behavior in Moscow, too?

Alas, no real spring (or any seasons for that matter) here in Sunny Florida. Bad driving seems to be the norm year-round.

Heather Meadows said...

Maybe 911 would be too obvious to the terrorists who are hijacking the bus.