Sneeze Guards Installed On Annapolis City Buses: Coronavirus
ANNAPOLIS, MD — In an effort to better protect city bus drivers during the new coronavirus pandemic, the Annapolis Department of Transportation has implemented a "sneeze guard" made of Plexiglass. All bus operators currently have gloves, face coverings and hand sanitizer.
"After seeing the story about Jason Hargrove, the Detroit bus operator who lost his life to COVID-19, I challenged staff to come up with additional protective measures for operators," said City of Annapolis Transportation Director Rick Gordon.
Gordon said that in a cross-departmental collaboration, Adonis (Grip) Bishop, facility maintenance technician for the city’s department of public works, came up with the idea of using Plexiglass to separate the bus operator from passengers entering the bus. Bishop cut the material so that it could be fitted around the driver’s cabin while not interfering with the driver or passengers entering the bus. The installation has begun on the small buses, starting with paratransit. A similar solution will be outfitted for larger buses in the fleet.
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Using Plexiglass is significantly more cost effective than purchasing and installing specially-designed equipment, Gordon said. Other transit agencies are using shower curtains, but Gordon said he did not believe those met safety standards for operational effectiveness because it can impede visibility.
“Our city is working together to find innovative solutions,” said Mayor Gavin Buckley in a statement. “Every day we find ourselves confronted with new and seemingly insurmountable problems. A few days later someone in our city comes up with an answer. This is brilliant and I thank Director Gordon for crowdsourcing the solution and especially Mr. Bishop for figuring it out.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, City of Annapolis Transportation transports patients to medical appointments and essential workers to jobs in the hospitality, service and health care industries.
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This article originally appeared on the Annapolis Patch
