Jefferson Transit driver proves he's second to one in the nation
Jefferson Transit bus driver Lloyd Eisenman displays the trophy he won by placing second at this week's American Public Transportation Association's International Bus Rodeo. -- Jeff Chew/Peninsula Daily News
By Jeff Chew, Peninsula Daily News
Print This |
Email This
Recent Headlines
To our readers . . . about the Aspire! Quartet’s Singing Valentine program -- 2/10/12 -01:53 PM
Floating luxury home hits the water, now moored at Point Hudson [**Video**] -- 2/10/12 -01:03 PM
Mountain goat population up about 40 percent in Olympic Mountains -- 2/10/12 -12:07 PM
417.9 million bites later . . . (does this video warrant that much attention?) -- 2/10/12 -12:02 PM
Josh Powell had ‘incestuous’ sex images, investigators say -- 2/10/12 -09:32 AM
That's right, the second-best driver in United States, Canada and Mexico.
Eisenman won second place in the 35-foot coach division of the American Public Transportation Association International Bus Roadeo in Austin, Texas, on Sunday.
"If there are buses on Mars, that would be the next level," Dave Turissini, Jefferson Transit's general manager, quipped during a celebration of Eisenman's victory Thursday at Transit's Sims Way offices.
Achieving his win, the 42-year-old Port Hadlock resident and Jefferson Transit driver for 2½ years, said took defying the odds of using a bus in questionable condition, one that he had never driven before.
Only bus driver Arthur Murillo, an Austin Capital Metro bus driver who was on familiar turf and riding his own system's bus, rolled past Eisenman.
It was no easy task for Eisenman.
He faced the driver who took first place in the 35-foot bus category at the Texas state "roadeo" this year, and has twice before won the international championship, in 2002 and 2005.
Keeping his cool under extreme pressure, Eisenman drove down barrel-lined lanes at 25 mph with three inches of clearance on each side, and stopped just three inches from a pylon he could not even see once he was on top of it.
In seven minutes, far less than the normal 20 minutes, he identified eight things wrong with a bus in a test pre-inspection, such windows left open, a hidden gas can in the back of the bus and a missing mirror near an exit door.
"It is a safety competition. That is what we're practicing," Eisenman said.
Next year: Seattle
The experience has made Eisenman all the more hungry to ride to the top in next year's international competition in Seattle.
No stranger to bus-driving competition, Eisenman has competed successfully on the regional and state levels in 2007, making him eligible for national and international bus games.
He won "Rookie of the Year" at the Peninsula Cup Roadeo at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds, and fourth place at the state Public Transportation Roadeo sponsored by the Washington State Transit Association.
Eisenman owned a private bus charter service that took tourists to Canada for eight years.
During those years of driving through the narrow streets of Victoria, he mastered the maneuverability that helped him miss barrels and pylons by inches to score high in competition.
But it was Jefferson Transit, he said, under the watchful eyes of Jefferson Transit's training supervisor Mike Pollack, that supported his road to victory.
"Having employers that let me practice at the [Haines Place] Park and Ride is the main reason I succeeded," Eisenman said.
He underwent a month of intensive practice in all kinds of weather, unpaid on his days off, which required blocking off about three-quarters of the Port Townsend park-and-ride.
"Rarely have I seen anyone so motivated to perfect his skills," Pollack said.
"Lloyd has a keen sense of competition and the skills to succeed at such a high level."
________
Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: May 08. 2008 9:00PM