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Is it safe to travel by Greyhound?
I will be traveling across the country next month and have been debating about the safest way of travel. I was interested on going on the bus, but recent activities have really frightened me about traveling by Greyhound. I always thought it would be exciting to ride through cities on the bus heading to my destination and now I'm thinking about skipping travel by Greyhound bus and flying instead for safety reasons.
The Greyhound also has the advantage of a lower cost than a flight. Greyhound's low price is really a good thing, but the fear of being hurt on the bus is outweighing it for me right now.
For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, there was a horrific murder that happened on a Greyhound bus on July 30, 2008 in Canada. A passenger on the Greyhound bus actually murdered another passenger during their trip. The entire stabbing/decapitation process happened right in front of the ENTIRE (37 other passengers) bus and nobody did anything to save the passenger being attacked and, ultimately, killed. It scares me that it happened so easily.
I really need advice about this. Is it really safe to ride on the Greyhound buses now? Should I not travel by Greyhound bus? When would it be safe to begin traveling by Greyhound again--or will it never be safe to travel by Greyhound?
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It is exactly as safe now, as it ever was, and ever will be, to travel by Greyhound bus.
In fact, it might even be safer now! Since employees and patrons are sure to be on their guard and new measures have been implemented for safety.
The simple fact is that the man who committed that horrible murder was mentally ill. Sane people don’t do what he did. He was mentally ill when he went to work, and he was mentally ill when he walked the streets of his home town. He was mentally ill at the mall, and the grocery store… The fact that what happened, happened on a Greyhound bus, means nothing… It could have happened anywhere.
Also, I think you might need to take a look at what happened again. What happened took place without any warning, and by the time those other patrons had even realized what was taking place, the poor victim was already beyond saving. They exited the bus, locked the mad man inside and protected the living. Call me cold-hearted, but a hero to me isn’t the one who stayed to die with this poor hapless victim, a hero is someone who does the most good for the most people regardless of personal cost. What the other riders did, in leaving the bus and not interfering with an insane murder, was sensible and wise. If they had not been so levelheaded, more people certainly would have died on that bus.
Sick people live in this world and bad things happen for no reason.
That is the truth of this universe.
If you are going to live in fear of Greyhound busses, you might as well never leave your home again. Everywhere you go, you run that ridiculously small chance of being near a mentally ill person when they do something phenomenally sick and wrong.
When 9/11 happened, did people suddenly decide not to work in large buildings anymore? Did they stop flying in planes? Did they stop going to places which might be targets? Yes, some people did, but most didn’t and even those who did are generally over it by now. It’s not really any safer then it was before… people have just moved on. Most people realized that although what happened was horrific, it was quite unlikely that it happened once, and very unlikely to happen again.
So, I say take the Greyhound, just use your standard common sense and be aware of those around you. Just the same way you should be anywhere in life.
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Greyhound makes thousands of trips across the U.S. and Canada each day and each year. What happened in Canada back in July is an anomaly. The odds of that ever recurring are likely several million to one.
The company now also has measures in place to make sure this doesn't happen again. Some of them are measures that the public don't know have been implemented. So, riding Greyhound Vs an airplane is about the same treat if you think about crashes or terrorists.
If you don't feel comfortable (and I wouldn't in wake of this) drive down or decide against going. What happened in one circumstance here won't necessarily happen again. The problem is that there isn't a way of screening for air or bus travel against those who are severely psychotic from getting on. Severely psychotic doesn't mean your average mental disturbance either.
Until they put air marshals with training on all flights and federal agents with guns on buses you're going to have this issue in my opinion. I can't believe the government in the U.S. was stupid enough to let the media report that air marshals are only on 1% of all flights. They ought to be on all measures of transportation except for mass transit.
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