Flashback: Feb. 22, 2010

VANOC bus driver dies
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

Tragedy struck the Olympic Bus Network Monday morning when a 71-year-old driver suffered a heart attack and died at the wheel on Highway 1 near the Port Mann Bridge.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was shuttling five other bus drivers westbound from their Fraser Valley motels. One of the passengers grabbed the wheel and safely stopped the vehicle around 4 a.m. The surviving drivers were given the day off and offered counseling.

“Health and safety, it’s our number one priority,” said VANOC vice-president of communications Renee Smith-Valade said. “Nothing is sadder for us than to lose someone on the workforce.”

VANOC budgeted $52.3 million for charter bus systems and hired Orlando, Fla.-based Gameday Management to handle logistics. Most of the 1,100 vehicles and their drivers are from the United States, including Alabama, Texas and Wisconsin. Gameday event operations vice-president Mike Witte did not return a Monday phone call.

An OBN driver, who asked that his name not be published, told 24 hours that a drug test was required for employment, but not a medical certificate.

Edison Transportation-contracted drivers nearly revolted Feb. 4 over 18 hour work days. Commercial vehicle safety rules say drivers cannot exceed 13 hours daily and must have 10 hours off-duty per day. VANOC replaced, at its own cost, 100 public transit buses which were supplied north by Shuttle Bus Leasing of Riverside, Calif.

(Postscript: Through the kind help of a contracted driver with Edison Transportation, I eventually found Jeanette Roberge, widow of Dale Roberge. Read about him here and here. Many tears were shed over the deaths of Nodar Kumaritashvili and Therese Rochette. Rightly so. VANOC mentioned the death of Mr. Roberge at a news conference on Feb. 22, 2010, though his name was not announced. VANOC, however, did not contact Mrs. Roberge to offer condolences. Sadly, the couple was three weeks shy of wedding anniversary number 50.)

Flashback: Feb. 14, 2010

Problems plague Cypress, transportation systems
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

VANCOUVER: Millions of dollars were spent to truck and airlift snow to cover the rainsoaked slopes of Cypress Mountain, but that’s not VANOC’s only problem at the snowboarding and freestyle skiing venue.

Food service was disrupted by a power outage during Saturday night women’s moguls competition. Lineups were long and crowd control described as chaotic by fans trying to get out of the wind and rain and onto buses. At least one bus load of spectators from Burnaby Mountain missed the start of competition because they were picked-up almost 90 minutes late.

“Cypress is like your special child, your special child that’s bright and talented and good-looking and causes you all kinds of worries, but they’re still your special child,” said VANOC communications vice-president Renee Smith-Valade.

Smith-Valade downplayed troubles with the Olympic bus network. Media, spectators and athletes have reported a variety of problems, mainly with 300 public transit buses imported from California by subcontractor Edison Transportation. Buses have broken down or gotten lost because of drivers unfamiliar with the region. She said another 100 buses are being added to the fleet of 1,100 vehicles.

“We’ve spent years planning the transportation system and the geographic nature of our Games region presents some unique challenges with all of the transportation up to the mountain venues being by bus,” Smith-Valade said.

“Mechanical failures happen and sometimes it’s human failure, you can have people that don’t show up for a shift -- and that happens in any organization -- bus drivers who get sick and the odd bus driver who gets lost.”

Four Host First Nations members missed the start of the Friday opening ceremony, but Smith-Valade said they were in vehicles rerouted because of an anti-Olympic protest.

VANOC budgeted $52.3 million for bus systems in its May 2007 operations budget and hired Orlando, Fla.-based Gameday Management Group, which was involved in the much-criticized 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The Vancouver 2010 transportation plan was originally supposed to be completed by the end of 2007.

“There’s thousands of buses, there are hundreds of drivers, there are nine transportation hubs, so it’s a big beast to manage,” Smith-Valade said. “We want to get it right, we’re having some teething issues, no question.”