Rantings of a Trimet Bus Driver-Book 3

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

ELLEN FOX-OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE

ELLEN FOX WATCH BLOG(blog not mine)

THE JUDGE RULES IN THE CASE OF ELLEN FOX VS AL M HERE!

ELLEN FOX GOES AFTER KHRIS ALEXANDER HERE

Ellen Fox maintains a slander blog where she puts forward the theory that I am "stalking" her.

The truth of the matter is that she is stalking me. Her blog exists as her personal attack weapon against me since she has been unable to use conventional means to undermine my efforts. Below is the description of my relationship with this very disturbed woman and how it came to pass that she has developed such a obsessiveness about me and my blog.

Ellen Fox and I had been casual friends for over ten years.
On several occasions in past volumes of my Rantings blog I gave her support in other disputes she was having with other people.

Our friendship ended after we had a telephone conversation where she advised me about “Trimet’s dirty tricks” and how they went about “setting up” operators they wanted to get rid of.

At that time it was my standard procedure to tape record all telephone calls. I had taped several conversations with various Trimet management officials and placed them on my blog with no voice distortion. Although several managers were offended by that they were apparently informed by Trimet legal that I was not in violation of any laws.

The conversation I had with Ellen was so intriguing, so beyond what I thought possible of Trimet management, that I placed it on my blog, using my advanced voice distortion software so as to protect Ellen’s identity.
The next day she contacted me in a rage. I took the whole thing down immediately per her request and thought that would be the end of it. Fat chance, I had no idea at that time what type of personality I was dealing with. She stated that even with voice distortion they would know it was her, apparently she was the only person alive that would have that information so it would be traced back to her resulting in retaliation. The whole event had very limited exposure since it was up only one day and the blog was relatively unknown except for a handful of transit bloggers.

That was the end of our friendship, and we never had another personal conversation again. If she had let go of the situation nobody would have ever known about it, but that is not MS Fox style. I became her personal enemy and she has been engaging in a smear campaign against me since.

As she would smear me around the internet I would defend myself of her, sometimes using small pieces of the original conversation. She then got a lawyer who persuaded me to remove all content related to her, I agreed with the following provision, she never mention me again on the internet.

Later in the year there was a controversy at the Powell garage. Attending my very first union meeting I was given a copy of the petition, to my shock and surprise my name was prominently displayed as party to the charges against another. Ellen had listed me as a protagonist in the whole situation. To make long story short things got nasty and finally that whole situation ended, unfavorable for Ellen Fox.

She then decided that she would sue me over the original taping. She wanted $7500. The judge saw no damages other than she was upset and awarded her $100. Unable to accept the judge’s ruling she tried again, this time the case was heard at the PEOPLES COURT, where the full judgment was for the defendant (me).

Unable to accept that ruling either Ellen Fox has continued to engage in a libelous smear campaign against me.

She maintains a "smear blog" which is all about me and how evil I am.

Most of my confidants advise me to ignore her, however one tires of being accused of stalking and menacing for no reason other than revenge.

This is a vicious woman who from my point of view is mentally unstable.

Now you know my side of the story.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

BIG DEAL OUT OF MAX LEAVING KID BEHIND

As you may know, there was a situation on Monday where a man and his son were
separated from each other during a MAX trip, and we are making the video from
the platform and an overview of the situation available to all media. If you
haven't picked up a disk from us, you can get the video here:

Here's the situation: The event with the man, Aaron Bailey, and his young child
(3 years old) happened Monday, November 16, at 8:13 a.m. at SE Main St station,
on the northbound platform. As the boy was getting off the train, he had pushed
the accessible ramp button on the door, causing the door to open, then close
again to deploy the ramp. The door should have reopened. It did not reopen and
the boy and father were separated, the boy on the platform and the father inside
the train. The door and ramp function is still under investigation, but the ramp
deployment process may have been overridden, causing the ramp deployment to be
interrupted.

A woman on the platform is standing by the boy. She pressed the button for the
door but the door didn't open. The dad was inside, pushing the door open button
as well. Other doors on the train opened and closed as normal, finally all
closing and the train left the station. The child was on the platform, the woman
(stranger) staying with him. She remained with the child until dad returned
about seven minutes later on a southbound train from Gateway.

Mr. Bailey reports that he pushed the intercom button inside the train to
contact the operator, with no response. It appears there was a malfunction with
the audio component of the intercom. That issue has been addressed.

While this kind of situation is rare, there are clear protocols for when a
family is separated from each other on our system. The operator is to call our
control center to report what happened. A supervisor is dispatched to the
child's location and stays with the child until he/she can be reunited. The
control center also informs the next train or bus coming to the child's location
to hold there until a supervisor or the guardian arrives. In this situation,
once Mr. Bailey talked with the operator, rail control was called and a
supervisor came to the SE Main St station. Mr. Bailey and his son had already
left.

We've been in contact to Mr. Bailey to apologize for this unfortunate situation
and gave annual passes to he and his wife for their inconvenience.

Bekki Witt, TriMet Public Information Officer

Stories

by Anne Yeager and KGW.com Staff

Posted on November 20, 2009 at 12:11 PM

Updated today at 3:50 PM

PORTLAND -- A MAX operator was fired Wednesday after the separation of a father from his 3-year-old son at the Main Street platform last week.
TriMet said the operator ignored four calls on the emergency intercom system on November 16, which created a potential danger.

KGW identified the driver as Paul Cooper.
“This operator’s actions were unacceptable,” TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen said. “They also do not represent our 1,300 operators who everyday deliver quality service to thousands of riders.”

Bailey said that the MAX train's door closed before his son, Aiden, could climb aboard.
Bailey was taking his son to Head Start. The Green Line was approaching the Main Street Platform when the doors opened.As Aiden stepped out onto the platform, the doors shut, separating the child from his father.
"I frantically tried to push the open button, but they didn’t open, “ Bailey said.
A Good Samaritan who had been standing on the MAX platform took Aiden by the hand and waited on the bench, according to a statement issued by TriMet on Nov. 20.
Cooper was suspended earlier in the week.
TriMet inspected the intercom system and re-created the incident, determining there was no mechanical malfunction.
In a statment Friday, the Amalgamated Transit Union spokesman Jon Hunt said the agency was too eager to "throw (the) operator under the train.

"Before doing any investigation whatsoever, TriMet managers announce to the press that they intend to discipline the operator of the train. The question everyone should ask is 'why is TriMet management so quick to point the blame away from themselves and onto the operator?'"

Hunt added that MAX operators and passengers complained about malfunctioning communication equipment on the new trains and the manufacturer about these issues but there has been no resolution.

"TriMet managers knew about this problem even before the Green Line to Clackamas was opened to the public.”
Bailey said he pushed the intercom at least 10 times without response. No one answered, he said.
"I had him in my hand ... when he was exiting he pulled the handicap button, “ Bailey explained. "I frantically tried to push the open button, but they didn’t open."
Bailey said he exited the train at the next stop, crossed, and took the first train heading back toward his son.
The boy waited approximately seven minutes with the Good Samaritan, TriMet said.
"We embraced and I cried for a minute and then I hugged her (the Good Samaritan) and we cried for a minute,” Bailey said.
Once the relief passed Bailey became angry with the operator's response and questioned why the train doors had closed on his son, and why the operator did not answer the intercom calls.
Bailey told KGW Wednesday on he was sad that the firing had to happen, but that TriMet had to set a precedent.
"When this all started, I would have been happy with personal apology. With Tri-met’s admission, I hope he’ll (the operator) be held accountable in the future," Bailey said.
Did you see this incident - or do you know how to contact the Good Samaritan who helped? Send us an E-mail
The Baileys received family passes for a year and an apology.
http://www.kgw.com/video/featured-videos/boystrandedontrainplatform-70598347.html