Headline May 8 2009 – ”Trolleys Collide in Boston; 49 People Hurt”
Almost 50 people were injured on Friday in Boston when an underground trolley rear-ended another trolley. No one was killed however. The Transit Authority at the scene found that the 24 year old conductor had been text messaging from his phone when the accident occurred. Some 9 conductors have been suspended in the past year for either texting or using cell phones while driving. Here in California, a conductor crashed a Metrolink commuter train last year. This incident killed 25 and injured 138. The CA story here.
Updated news on the Boston accident came out yesterday. It seems that the 24 year old conductor, a Mr. Aiden Quinn, had 3 recent speeding tickets on his record when he was hired. This apparently was either –
a). ignored by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, or
b). brushed aside because of his ‘other’ qualifications.
This ‘other’ overriding qualification? Quinn’s status as a ”female-to-male” transgender special-minority member. Although the MBTA denies that his/her special minority status had anything to do with his/her hiring I think that I instinctively know better. In the least, knowing that Quinn was in part hired because of being a transgender casts a pall over this accident. Imagine if you or a loved one were injured from this guy’s negligence? Then to hear that he has speeding tickets on his record and that his credentials/offenses may have been brushed over because he belonged to a politically-correct minority group. Never mind that sex changes are elective. Political correctness contaminates minds and souls and quota-based hiring puts our entire society at great peril.
7 comments:
I think your right. He may not have been hired because he was a she-male but his application was almost certainly not rejected because of it.
How much money could we save by selling MA to Canada? How much could we save by repatriating California to Mexico? Could also get LaRaza to shut the hell up for a good minute.
Sides, we could use good people like you down here to help displace the stream of emigrants form Cali.
Political Correctness is ruining our country. Bluepitbull, I think we would have to PAY to be rid of MA.
I’m really concerned about the texting and cell phone use. The two near accidents that recently scared the crap out of me were due to idiots using a cell phone and not paying attention to their driving. I see people all over chatting or texting away. They’ve even made it illegal in Wash. across the river from me and that has not dented the people there who abuse cell phones.
It’s astounding that a poor record would be ignored as well. Jeez! Maybe someone on that trip will sue to have them tighten up their regulations. I’d be pissed.
I’d agree with you if I had the remotest bit of faith in a bureaucracy like the Boston Transit Authority to actually identify competent individuals to perform low- and mid-level tasks like “driving” a trolley car which, so far as I can tell, consists of accelerating, decelerating, and announcing the name of the next stop in a completely incoherent mumble. Despite the amazingly low threshold for competence involved in a job like that, it seems that almost everywhere you go those sorts of positions are held by people who make you think that they find the job challenging. So I suspect that Mr. Quinn’s innate incompetence may be a bigger factor here than the BTA’s desire to fill a quota — had they hired the “most qualified” application, they’d still have found someone who doesn’t have the brains God gave lettuce.
He may lose his job as a trolley conductor, but as a Liberal, he really cares about the poor and minorities, so the actual results of his actions are not to be considered.
I expect his name will be floated forward as a possible replacement for Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat.
Ananda girl is right. The addiciton to texting while operating transportation is just getting out of hand PLUS his/her record was completely ignored to meet a quota. Quotas are killing our sensibilities!
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