Bus Driver’s Faultless 30 Years Come With Lots of Patience, Pinch of Luck

She is the Cal Ripken of bus drivers, the Iron Lady of safety. As they say in baseball, you can look it up: 30 years of service, more than 2 million miles traveled -- and not one bent fender that was her fault.

“I just cruise along, and I’m patient,” says Judy Miller, who was recently honored by the Orange County Transportation Authority for being the first OCTA bus driver to make it three decades without causing an accident.

“Most of the drivers who have had a lot of accidents like to tell me it’s all been luck. Maybe 15% of it’s been luck. I know that doesn’t sound humble, but it’s true.”

Miller, who is 54 and lives in Lake Forest, first took to the wheel Sept. 11, 1973, after three months as a school bus driver.

Each workday since, she has piloted her elephant of public transport through the jungle that’s known as Southern California traffic, arriving at the bus yard at the end of her shift in one piece.

Day in, day out. The equivalent of 80 trips around the world.

This, of course, doesn’t include the days that someone has hit her.

“I’ve had two cars hit me and take off,” Miller says.

“And I’ve had two or three side mirrors knocked off by trucks driving by. That’s pretty scary. I had a bicycle run into the back of me when I was sitting still. And that’s it.”

That’s far from it. Nearly every day there’s a close call.

Miller was tooling down Bus Route 82 in Mission Viejo about a week ago when suddenly a mattress appeared in the middle of the road.

With the certainty of a stunt driver filming a BMW commercial, she swerved to avoid it and continued on her way.

“People, for some reason, can’t seem to see that big old bus. They turn right in front of you,” Miller says of adversaries who would try to break her streak. “They probably think, ‘She won’t hit me.’ But they don’t know how heavy buses are.”

For the record: 15 tons.

“There’s definitely a lot of road rage out there,” she adds. “So many people want to be first. It amazes me how many people run red lights. And then there’s the cellphone situation. That drives me nuts. They’re on their phone and they’re either going 2 mph or switching lanes without looking.

“Every day, something happens and I think to myself, ‘This is the year that I have an accident.’ But I just keep sliding through,” she says.

Miller attributes her success to her personality. She’s calm.

If heavy traffic causes her to fall behind schedule, she doesn’t push it.

“It’s not worth it,” she says. She checks the mirror every few seconds and sets her rear-view mirror on an angle so she can see more of the bus’ side.

When she gets into a tight situation -- a construction zone, say -- she doesn’t hesitate to stop, get out and check to see whether she has enough room.

“People don’t realize how much there is to do when you’re driving a bus,” she says.

OCTA presents awards to drivers with unblemished records after 10, 15, 20 and 25 years of service.

Accidents among the agency’s 1,200 drivers are rare: about 12 per month, most of them minor, officials say. Few hit the 20-year mark without an accident, let alone 30 years.

Miller’s closest competition -- her only competition, really -- is Reeda Hank. Last week, Hank marked 30 years on the job accident-free, keeping her just three months behind Miller’s mark. No other driver is even close.

Years ago, Miller began wearing an angel pin on her uniform collar. At some point, it became her good-luck charm.

Now, if she’s driving to work and realizes she isn’t wearing it, she’ll go back home and get it.

“If I don’t have it on, I feel like something might happen,” she says.

“Sometimes I feel like there’s a white light around me, a little thing protecting me. Whatever it is, it seems to be working.”

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