Stressed bus drivers just count to 10

Medleydell Josephs' secret is to "go with the flow" when she's at the wheel of her bus. Picture / Martin Sykes

Sticky weather fuelled more road rage in Auckland yesterday, but the city's bus drivers were seemingly unanimous in condemning a colleague charged with assaulting people in Queen St.

As the Weekend Herald was interviewing drivers about the incident, in which the suspended Stagecoach employee has admitted trying to pull a woman from her car on Tuesday and pushing over a 64-year-old man, the police were called to yet another mid-street altercation.

They had to restrain a furious motorist from striking an airport bus driver after a minor collision at the busy intersection of Queen St and Fort St just after 1.30pm.

Although no charges were laid, one bemused onlooker said the motorist swung a punch at the shaken bus driver through an open window.

But the witness said the driver would not have helped matters by making a racial comment about the motorist, and then getting off the bus to remonstrate with him. Backpacker tourists scrambled off the bus to try to separate the pair before police arrived moments later and pulled them apart.

At about the same time, other police were arresting the Stagecoach driver involved in the earlier incident, before releasing him on bail to appear in Auckland District Court next Tuesday on two assault charges.

The 40-year-old from Glenfield, who also faces an investigation meeting with his employer on Monday, gave himself up at the Auckland Central Police Station. Although he said on Thursday that he was suffering a fever at the time of the incident, and was later admitted in agony to hospital to pass a kidney stone, no other bus driver who spoke to the Herald yesterday accepted that as an adequate excuse for his actions.

"He should not have been employed by Stagecoach," said another of the company's drivers, who gave his name only as Rex. "The job is stressful at the best of times, but if I get stressed I count to 10 first and by that time I always calm down."

Ritchies Transport driver Dave Turner said Auckland's traffic made life difficult "but it is no good getting angry with it - you have got to be a lot more professional than that".

"Dealing with the public is always a challenge, but you have got to have an understanding of other people," said Mr Turner, who has driven buses for about 10 years.

Fellow Ritchies driver Phil Orr said: "The guy's an idiot. He shouldn't be driving ever again."

He said stress was a state of mind, and drivers should let go of their frustrations.

One Stagecoach driver admitted some sympathy for the man, given the stressful nature of the job, but said he should not have got out of his bus in the middle of Queen St.

Howick and Eastern bus company driver Medleydell Josephs, with 30 years' experience of handling difficult passengers and ill-behaved motorists, said the secret of survival was to "go with the flow."

"Sometimes I get the finger job from motorists, but I just wave to them when they do that," she said.

Auckland Tramways Union president Gary Froggatt said Stagecoach should be more vigilant in screening job applicants, but he acknowledged a comprehensive training programme helped drivers deal with stress.

He said the union and the firm held joint presentations in which recruits were exhorted to drive defensively, to accept what they could not change and to "relax and let things go".

They were also taught breathing exercises to combat stress, and an industrial nurse had provided a short physical routine including stretches for drivers to try at the end of their runs, if they had time.

Auckland stress consultant John McEwan said everyone was capable of being overcome by "primal rage", which was what kept their ancestors alive against perceived threats.

"We can all lose the plot," he said.

But Dr McEwan said people arrested for assault often had low self-awareness, to the extent that they did not recognise the build-up of stress or even symptoms of illness.

The trick was to recognise symptoms of stress overload before breaking point, and to practise unwinding techniques such as deep abdominal breathing to lower blood-pressure, and cognitive exercises to stop annoying people or events from taking up "space in our heads".