Quincy Transit to issue incident-response policy after bus struck a dog, director says

Quincy Transit will draft and issue a policy on how staff respond when a bus strikes an animal or otherwise becomes involved in similar incidents, Transit Director Marty Stegeman told the Quincy City Council.

Stegeman said a bus struck a dog on South 20 Second Street; he reported that a GPS vendor review showed the bus did not exceed the posted speed limit at any time and that the maximum speed for the road segment at the incident time was 12.4 mph and the average speed on the day was 16.3 mph (figures provided by the transit office). Stegeman said he sympathized with the dog owner and acknowledged the situation was upsetting for both the owner and the driver.

At a transit committee review, staff discussed a formalized policy similar to what the public schools use: when an incident occurs, the office will be notified; during business hours dispatchers will notify 911, and 911 will notify police dispatch, after which the police department’s established policies would take precedence for handling the scene. Stegeman said the transit office will apply the policy uniformly across the department and that some routes (highway routes or streets with safety constraints) could make on-scene stopping impractical.

Stegeman told the council he is drafting the policy and expected it to be issued by the end of the week. He said outside business hours callers should contact him directly and that the department will evaluate any new policy for department-wide risk and safety implications.

No formal council action was taken during the report; council members heard the transit committee’s review and the planned next steps.