Bus Driver Suspended After Striker Is Crushed

Greyhound officials announced Sunday that they have temporarily suspended the driver of a bus believed to have crushed a striking worker to death in Redding.

Calling the incident early Saturday a “tragic accident” that was not the driver’s fault, the company nonetheless suspended him, pending an internal investigation.

“Greyhound is providing him with lodging and transportation back to his home,” a company statement said of the driver, Theodore Graham, 42, of Portland, Ore. “(We) will provide counseling and other services as requested.”

Redding police, meanwhile, said they were still investigating the incident and would report their findings to the district attorney’s office later this week.

Graham, believed to be en route back to Portland, could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Meanwhile, Greyhound drivers entered the third day of their nationwide strike sporting black armbands and, in some cases, staying off picket lines in memory of their dead comrade, Robert R. Waterhouse, 59, of Redding.

“This strikes deep in our hearts,” said Wes Ponsford, an executive board member of Los Angeles Local 1222 of the Amalgamated Council of Greyhound Local Unions, which represents more than 9,000 Greyhound employees nationwide, including 6,300 drivers. “We didn’t ever want anything like this to happen.”

The union, which in recent years has taken pay cuts, accused Greyhound of bad-faith bargaining for refusing to modify an initial three-year contract offer that had been solidly rejected by the rank-and-file.

The company accused drivers, who now average $24,700 a year, of asking for wage hikes that could be financed only through a fare increase.

Each side accused the other of distorting its positions.

According to police, the bus driven by Graham--who was serving his second day on the job after being hired specifically to replace striking drivers--turned into an alleyway from the Redding bus depot near a group of pickets, including Waterhouse. As the bus passed, police said, it sideswiped a building, crushing Waterhouse against a wall.

Apparently unaware of the accident, police said, Graham continued his run with 38 passengers for several miles until the bus was flagged down by pickets who had followed in a pickup truck.

The strike, which was called early Friday after wage negotiations between the company and union representatives broke down in Scottsdale, Ariz., has reportedly resulted in other scattered violence.

Police said last week that shots were fired at a bus in Chicago. In addition, they said, a passenger in Philadelphia has been charged with assaulting a striker with a tear gas canister and in Jacksonville, Fla., a striking driver was struck by a bus Saturday but not injured.

No new incidents were reported Sunday, although striking drivers at the Greyhound depot in downtown Los Angeles continued to delay outgoing buses by standing in their paths and, in at least three cases, by apparently letting the air out of the vehicles’ tires.

“Hopefully that’s all the trouble we’ll have,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Charles Mealey. “They’re just delaying the buses (long enough) to make their point.”

Greyhound spokeswoman Ann Wheat said Sunday that the company was making about 29% of its scheduled runs--up 9% from Friday--and that about 1,800 drivers had crossed the picket lines nationwide to return to work.

Union officials scoffed at that, saying they had counted only 95 drivers who had returned to work and that the company was covering less than 10% of its routes.

Whatever the truth, it was clear that passengers in Los Angeles, at least, were being seriously inconvenienced.

“It’s getting ridiculous,” said Jeanette Grove, 22, who has spent nearly three days at the downtown depot trying to get a bus to Phoenix.

Erin Dawn, 25, of San Francisco had a slightly different tale. Having taken the bus south to visit a sister in the San Fernando Valley, she had been mistakingly deposited in Los Angeles by an apparently inexperienced driver who had missed a freeway exit. Now she had spent five hours sitting on her suitcase at the depot waiting for a ride back to her original destination.

Next time, Dawn said, “I think I might take a plane.”