Sandwich leads to verbal fireworks on Pierce Transit bus
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TACOMA, Wash. -- A Tacoma woman claims two bites of her breakfast sandwich led to a humiliating and frightening encounter with a Pierce Transit bus driver.
Bus rider Jessica Piller said she was sick and just trying to finish her sandwich Friday morning when a bus driver verbally attacked her in front of other passengers.
Pierce Transit officials say the bus driver was simply enforcing the "no food" rule. They also say the the driver was the one who was verbally abused.
"While my mouth's full I'm saying 'I'm sick. I'm just trying to finish these two bites, just let me finish these two bites,'" Piller said of the Friday morning confrontation.
Piller said the driver overreacted, yelling at her to put the food away. She said she didn't know about the no-food rule and thought it would be OK to eat the last few bites of the sandwich. It turns out that wasn't the case, she said.
"He's yelling as he's walking toward me, 'I told you to put that away. You're supposed to put that away," she said. "And he said, 'That's it. Get off the bus.'"
Piller admits she responded strongly and cussed at the driver.
"I had a few choice words for him, but he had taken away my dignity at that point and embarrassed me," she said.
Transit officials say the rules of the bus are mandatory, and the driver didn't actually remove Piller because she was eating, but because she was disruptive during the verbal exchange.
Some of her fellow bus riders are taking Piller's side.
"Stupid, plain and simple," one rider said. "Why would you kick a person off for eating two bites of a sandwich?"
Pierce Transit officials say they've received Piller's complaint and will "will follow-up with her concern regarding this particular employee's behavior and overall response to the incident," according to a statement.
For now, Piller is refusing to take the bus and said she'd rather ride her bike the 10 miles to her job as an admission coordinator at Western State Hospital.
"We are riding this bus. We are customers, and we should be treated with respect," she said.
A transit police officer did give Piller a ride to work after she was kicked off the bus. She said she plans on taking her complaint to city, county and even state officials.
Bus rider Jessica Piller said she was sick and just trying to finish her sandwich Friday morning when a bus driver verbally attacked her in front of other passengers.
Pierce Transit officials say the bus driver was simply enforcing the "no food" rule. They also say the the driver was the one who was verbally abused.
"While my mouth's full I'm saying 'I'm sick. I'm just trying to finish these two bites, just let me finish these two bites,'" Piller said of the Friday morning confrontation.
Piller said the driver overreacted, yelling at her to put the food away. She said she didn't know about the no-food rule and thought it would be OK to eat the last few bites of the sandwich. It turns out that wasn't the case, she said.
"He's yelling as he's walking toward me, 'I told you to put that away. You're supposed to put that away," she said. "And he said, 'That's it. Get off the bus.'"
Piller admits she responded strongly and cussed at the driver.
"I had a few choice words for him, but he had taken away my dignity at that point and embarrassed me," she said.
Transit officials say the rules of the bus are mandatory, and the driver didn't actually remove Piller because she was eating, but because she was disruptive during the verbal exchange.
Some of her fellow bus riders are taking Piller's side.
"Stupid, plain and simple," one rider said. "Why would you kick a person off for eating two bites of a sandwich?"
Pierce Transit officials say they've received Piller's complaint and will "will follow-up with her concern regarding this particular employee's behavior and overall response to the incident," according to a statement.
For now, Piller is refusing to take the bus and said she'd rather ride her bike the 10 miles to her job as an admission coordinator at Western State Hospital.
"We are riding this bus. We are customers, and we should be treated with respect," she said.
A transit police officer did give Piller a ride to work after she was kicked off the bus. She said she plans on taking her complaint to city, county and even state officials.
I'm still shocked that they put me in it! Thanks for putting it on your website so I could show friends and family who missed it
The rules are there for several reasons. Perhaps this woman could have waited for the next bus while she finished her sandwich. She was clearly in the wrong, then argued when confronted, then verbally attacked when the normal consequences were applied. Some people have such a ridiculous sense of self-importance; they can't possibly be wrong. Hopefully she will learn something productive from her public shaming.
To those that argue...would you answer the same if the "contraband" in question was a lit cigarette? "I just have a couple more drags left...let me finish!"
I don't see much difference.
The world has many gray areas, like when your on the highway speeding, and don't get caught the gray area is choosing to speed and possibly getting caught, when you get caught you try to find a way out of the ticket, they should just implement a ticket system, and maybe they wouldn't have to hike gas prices up to get their billions spent on transportation. Install a camera system bus driver just hands over a ticket and has to say nothing, she has to battle the ticket. Pretty simple..picture is worth a thousand words. I think Orca pass holders have billing addresses...
She might have to get used to that anyways even if there wasn't any problems
"She`d rather ride her bike 10 miles"
Im sorry but regardless of what i think of this sick chick, where is the customer service? In the private sector .... lets say you walk into a movie theater with two bites of an egg mcmuffin to go. A worker says, "hey no outside food". You say "ok" and wolf it down. Then the employee turns up the lights, shuts off the coming attractions and orders you out for not immediately following directions. How much longer do you think that employee would still have a job? I cant imagine that there is anyone on this thread who has never walked into a place, been told you are violating some rule, you said "oh hey, sorry my bad", made some lame excuse, and finished up whatever you had been doing in the next 3-seconds and everybody moved on, no harm no foul. They dont break out a firehose and wash you back out the front door. That would be an overreaction. So is this. Now if this chick had a full or even half sandwich to go, then screw her. But 2-bites? Seriously? C,mon. I guess thats the difference between the private and the public sector. When taxpayers are footing the bill, customer service is not a requirement.
Well, eating food on a bus is wrong, BUT this isn't the first time I've heard of a Pierce County driver being VERY rude. One loves to harass my aunt about her service dog. So, food, BAD! Rude, threatening, demeaning bus driver, let's take a closer look at THAT, shall we?
@Grey Wolfe Drivers giving folks a hard time about their service dogs is a no-no even when it is gobsmackingly obvious that that poor excuse of a canine (or other animal) couldn't service a fire hydrant without a lesson from that Cesar guy.
Eat your food at home! Nobody wants to smell your food on the bus, let alone watch you eat! Gross!
Also, if you're sick, stay home!
I smell yet another frivolous lawsuit on its way...
I see people eating and drinking on the bus all the time. This guy was obviously a goody-two-shoes. FFS, give people a break.
There's also a certain courtesy that bus drivers need to show to passengers. You are the face of the transit system. Be polite and don't raise your voice to people. If you feel the need to do that, get transit police involved, they're the ones that get paid for that, not you.
@BluefireJaguar Really ,, hold up everyone while waiting for transit police. You talk about courtesy ,, thats a two way street. She could have put the sandwich up ,, problem solved.
Anyone want to bet she whined and complained the entire ride, and never once thanked the employee who came out and drove her sorry, whiny, rules-don't-apply-to-me azz to work?Â
@MargeGunderson There is no evidence of your conjecture. When multiple other riders are coming to Pillar's aid against the drivers verbal tirade, it gives more support of her side of the incident.
@DarkRenegade Probably the same type of rider as her ,, birds of a feather and so on ......
WHY Â were you going to work if you are sick ????????????? Â You are the one who needs to understand if you are SICK, stay home.....................
@dale50000Â It's OK, she works in a hospital........
@dome200q A mental hospital... where she belongs!
@Fooey Patooey! Don't know - don't live in Seattle.... Western State Hospital - could be...
@dale50000Â How is she supposed to get over being sick if she can't ride crowded, exhaust-fumed public transportation while eating greasy, chemical laden fast food?Â
The last sentence of this article tells a lot about this woman, her victim mentality and her tendency to over-react at ludicrous levels to very simple matters.Â
Not at all surprised that she screamed and swore at the very mention of being asked to follow the rules that are based on courtesy to her fellow passengers.Â
This comment has been deleted
@Snoop @MargeGunderson From the story highly likely.
Perhaps if the driver had asked, instead of demanded, none of this would have gone down. Is there a reason he did not ask politely? She paid for a ticket to ride a bus, she was not being disruptive until he became (from what I read) menacing and a bully. The bus is not a service - it is a commodity for which she paid. The driver was out of line and should be retrained.
@cdc Since when is tax payer supported transportation a "commodity" ,, she didnt buy an apple dude. She paid to be driven from point a to point b. I believe your a bit misguided here. And there are rules and regulations that can be enforced.
When I was growing up in the 50âs and 60â no one would have considered eating or drinking on a bus â didnât need bus company rules â we had been taught that if you didnât have enough for everybody â you didnât have enough for yourself⦠meaning donât in front of others. For you GenXâers, social manners like this might seem antiquated, and maybe they are, yet there wasnât nearly the social problems then as there are now.
A bus is a very dirty and gross place, so it's pretty disgusting to be eating there anyway. The signs on the bus are pretty clear and actually spell ALL the bus rules out in detail, including that the driver is allowed to kick passengers off. When you go to a place that has rules, or use a service that has rules, it is YOUR responsibility to know and follow those rules. If you swear at a bus driver, a cashier, a nurse, a librarian, or anyone else who is working at their job, you can and should expect to be told to leave, or escorted from the premises (or potentially have the cops called on you, depending on circumstances). That is NEVER an acceptable way to treat a person who is doing their job by enforcing the rules YOU are breaking.
What I can't stand is when people eat smelly sandwiches on the bus, like if it has onions or something...
@DMTÂ Or like a breakfast sandwich, with egg and bacon or sausage.
It says "No Food" on the bus plain as day - don't eat on the bus!
That being said, as a frequent bus rider, I notice not all drivers are consistent in rule enforcement, such as how some drivers let people off at crosswalks, eating, drinking, etc. I would have no complaints if all drivers were consistent enforcers.
@DMT
Consistency. Thatâs definitely always a plusâ¦..
No eating on the bus even though there is a picture of chicken nuggets on the side of it.Â
@EÂ Well, according to the bus riders in here, the signs actually read "No food," not "No eating." If those chicken nuggets are from McDonalds, they probably can't be classified beyond a reasonable doubt as food. :D
How anyone who rides the bus could not know about the no food rule is beyond me. Plain and simple she was wrong. But now she's a "victim." I hope she keeps her promise and rides her bike.
@ferryguy The bus driver could probably use the exercise of sweeping after people.
Most commenting here seem to be taking "the rules are the rules, no exceptions" stance. But I look at this from a slightly different perspective.Â
She stated she was sick, and was trying to finish the sandwich because of that fact.Â
What if she was a diabetic trying to beat a low blood sugar? As a diabetic myself, I ALWAYS carry food with me, and if I feel the symptoms coming on from a hyppoglycemic episode, I WILL eat, rules be damned. It's preferable to the option of getting too low, ending up in an ambulance & being taken to the hosital.Â
What if she had some other medical condition that woiuld have been far more serious if she did not eat?
What if she had NOT eaten it, and as a result had vomitted all over the bus? As another poster noted "that'l learn em".  Â
Yes, rules are in placea for a reason, but sometimes common sense & thinking must ALSO be used in a given situation to determine the "right" course of action. She had 2 bites left - what harm was she doing in trying to finish the sandwich?Â
@LocalLady She had obviously eaten all but 2 bites of her sandwich ,,, if she was diabetic her glucose level should already be stabilizing.
@LocalLady sorry but if she was "sick" the last two bites would not have mattered.  She was going to work sick (gee thanks says the other employees, people in the hospital, and fellow bus riders.)  And frankly, if I was her boss, I'd fire her for being obnoxious and cussing out the driver.Â
@LocalLady
Iâd be willing to bet that if you had been in this womanâs place, the very first word youâd have spoken would have been âSorryâ, followed with âIâm diabetic and my blood/sugar count is droppingâ¦â
I donât believe your exchange would have degraded into you cussing the driver out.  Just as I donât believe she was âsickâ and still going â where everâ¦.
âPiller admits she responded strongly and cussed at the driver.â
Wanta bet there is a bunch more to this story that SHE isnât saying?
As long as there isnât any eye-witnesses testifying for the driver, that isâ¦.
@dome200q Does PT have cameras on their buses that also record audio. That would be an eyewitness right there
@choliscott, You are right, cameras would solve this debate and end all reasons for posting conjectures (and our fun) but - don't know, as I said elsewhere on this story, don't live in the area.
I love people who think the rules dont apply to them because I didnt know and hell I was sick so make an exception for me. Everyone feels they are entitled and the rules shouldnt apply to them because.............what ever reason they have. Yes and when someone confronts you all bets are off and you can loose your mind and swear at them because well they deserved it. I say enjoy your bike ride and eat all the damn sandwhiches you want on your bike ride. I give it 3weeks til we hear about her gettiing disrespected by a mean car driver who expected her to obey the road laws............damn society.
no food on the bus is probably a practical decision. no slips or falls on spilled liquids or banana peels. cleaning a bus or any thing really (car, train, tv room) is much easier and faster when there is no food mess to tackle. this policy likely contributes to keeping the cost of cleaning down.  i'm with the rules. and having raised children i know when they said "just one more" "just two more" of anything i knew when i wasn't watching, it would be "more".
Listen folks, if you see a cop by the side of the road with a radar gun, do you speed up and give them the finger? No. If you have a sandwich or a candy bar when you get on the bus, please have the courtesy to stow it while you get on and don't ceremoniously chow down right in the "Conversation Seat." Take it to the back where the driver isn't forced to make a ruling, hunker down and finish the d3*n thing.
Just amazing! Well told, seeing how most of us where not on the bus at that moment, it is sad when you get treated as such, and made to feel bad about yourself...in route to work! Ever heard of stuff rolling down hill? I seen people eating, drinking, drunk on many a buses before especially on the routes coming from Seattle to Lakewood.. I mean wow, really! Bus driver should be in trouble if fired... If that was me I would have been let go with that hour... My experience with customer service jobs
@Jeannette Meeks The bus has clearly posted rules inside. They include no eating or drinking. They also include the mention that interfering with the bus driver's operation of the vehicle or causing a disruption, or breaking ANY of the bus rules, are cause for being removed from the bus. And she admits at this point that she cussed out the driver, which is NEVER acceptable. She wasn't kicked off for eating her sandwich, she was kicked off because she cussed him out and caused a disruption. It was inappropriate and trashy of her. If I cussed out any person while they were on the clock doing their job, I would expect to be escorted away or told to leave and denied service or the right to shop there or do business there.
@Jeannette Meeks    and this woman is in a customer service job. any thoughts as to how she treats her clients?
@jenniebÂ
Probably a whole lot better than she was treated
@LocalLady @jennieb   i'm quite sure there is a lot more to this story that we will never hear. ah, the power of the press . . .getting us to debate a sandwich on a bus!
NO FOOD FOR YOU!
The Bus Nazi.
@Mumblix Grumph The bus Nazi= the buzznazi all one word, for those of us that get to and should enforce the rules and not be afraid to do so.This nanny crap. Has to stop, release the Buzznazi.