The Drunk Bus Driver - DDB

Ryan Rogers
Lei Lani Michel
LSU English 1001 – Sec 111
16 October 2007
The Driver of the Drunk Bus - DDB

Louisiana State University provides a service to those students in need of a safe way home after a long night of partying. This life-saving service is called the Late Night Bus, but it is better known around campus as the “Drunk Bus.” This service is a free, no questions asked, means of transportation that is used to keep intoxicated students off the streets and away from the wheel. It even proved its worth to me one night, when I was a passenger aboard the bus. On a Thursday night, I had driven to Reggie’s, a popular college hotspot, just to have a sober, fun night with some friends; however, one thing led to another and a few drinks later, I found myself too inebriated to drive home. Mr. Joe Miller, the driver of the “Drunk Bus,” came to my rescue.
Although the “Drunk Bus” appears to be helpful, some people seem to think it may indirectly encourage drinking. As I wondered who to ask about this question, Mr. Joe Miller, a tall, slender, black man, in his mid-forties, with a strong southern accent, and the initials IRM tattooed on his neck, drove up in the infamous bus itself. He was just the man to ask if this were merely fallacy, or if it in fact was the cold hard truth. He has lived in Baton Rouge his entire life, is married to Irma Miller, and is the father of Ebony Miller. Before he was a driver of the “Drunk Bus,” he worked as a janitor at a small middle school in East Baton Rouge.
Joe started driving the lifesaving currier system on September 30th 2005. When I asked Mr. Joe why he had started driving the “Drunk Bus,” he responded laughing, “To pay some bills.” This caught me off guard because I assumed he was doing this because he wanted to protect the young LSU students from endangering their lives by driving under the influence. I asked him again, “That can’t be the only reason you drive this bus, is it?” He said, “Yup, at first that was pretty much the only reason, but through these two years I have drove the bus I have realized that these kids need me.” As Mr. Joe reflected on the years he had realized that his job had turned into not only a paycheck, but a way for him to protect the lives of the students and the others in the Baton Rouge community. While some argue that the “Drunk Bus” has a positive effect, others dispute that it supports the consumption of alcohol. When I asked Mr. Joe this he explained to me saying, “Whether or not it supports drinking isn’t the point, the point is that we are keeping drunk kids off the streets.” When I thought about it, it made perfect sense—whether or not kids are drinking more is not the issue, the issue is protecting the lives of not only the students, but also the others in the community. I wanted to know if the students had shown any appreciation towards Mr. Joe. In response Mr. Joe said that most of the students do either say, “Have a good night,” or, “Thanks Mr. Joe,” but some of them are “little shits,” as Mr. Miller liked to put it. With a perturbed look on my face he explained further, “Some of them are just disrespectful. They curse at me, and treat me like being a bus driver is a bad thing. Like I said only a FEW of them are like that most of them are respectful.” How someone getting a free ride can be disrespectful to the one person who drove him or her is beyond Mr. Joe’s and my comprehension, but most of the students are respectful, thankful, and find that the service is a great thing.
Being a “Drunk Bus” driver, there must some funny stories that Mr. Joe can tell, but I wanted to know if there were any times that were extra trying or even scary. Mr. Joe jumped into a story, “One night around 1:45 in the mornin’, I picked up around eight kids and I figured something was wrong when one of them had to be carried onto the bus by two of the other boys. His eyes were closed and his body was limp and there were no signs of consciousness. Here was my biggest dilemma while on the job, do I intrude and take action or do I sit back and go against my instincts to help this young fella.” With a look of “What would you have done?” on his face he continued, “I stopped the bus, walked down the aisle, and with my job on the line, asked the other two boys, ‘What did he take?’ The two boys said, ‘nothing’ in fear of getting in trouble. There was nothing I could do. As I started to walk back to my seat, I held my breath and said a quick prayer. That was the hardest thing I had to turn my back on in my life.” Because Mr. Joe is not allowed to question any of the students on the bus, he risked his job to even ask what the kid had taken. Even though he did not take any further action, he still could have lost his job. To this day Mr. Joe does not know if that kid is okay or not; consequently, he still regrets not taking any further action. What Mr. Joe takes comfort in is that if he had not picked up that young man and his friends there most certainly would have been at least one more drunken driver on the road.
Although Mr. Joe had not mentioned anything about Katrina, I wanted to know if Katrina had directly or indirectly affected him and his family. When I asked him if he how had been affected he said five words, “Traffic, traffic, and more traffic.” With all of the affects that Baton Rouge has felt, an increase in population, crime on the rise, and countless other affects, I was very surprised that traffic be the one thing Mr. Joe said. Mr. Joe started working as a “Drunk Bus” operator a little over a month after Katrina hit, so he never knew how pre-Katrina “drunk bus driving” was. He, however, had lived in Baton Rouge before Katrina so he knew how the regular driving conditions were. Mr. Joe confidently informed me, “There are at least three times as many cars on the road now than there were before Katrina. With all of the cars on the road it takes longer to get from place to place, which causes drivers to be more pissed off, which then causes more accidents.” Mr. Joe knows that first hand; he was in an accident in 2006, when someone cut him off trying to get to work complaining, "People are just more aggressive in the traffic.” As Mr. Joe said earlier, he didn’t start out driving the Drunk Bus to help alleviate the accidents or aggression “it’s just a plus.”
Mr. Joe finished saying, “Whether or not this service promotes drunkenness or not, if I were to save one life, just one, it would be worth it all.” For Mr. Joe to take that stance has shown that the issue, in his eyes, and now mine, is about saving lives, plain and simple.


Works Cited
http://brgov.com/dept/brpd/csr/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-21-baton-rouge-cover_x.htm