Some Dallas County bus drivers say they've complained to Dallas County about overgrown bushes and trees near the DART tracks at East Buckingham near Sherman in Richardson. Turns out they were complaining to the wrong agency.
"We have blind spots on the left and the right," explained bus driver Benny Douglas at the intersection. "When you get up here you can't see to the right and when you get up here, you got this (electrical) box here. Once those arms go up, we have to creep for our safety before another train comes down."
That electrical box is where it is because of limited right of way, according to DART spokesperson Mark Ball. He said the equipment inside it controls the arms and bells and lights so it has to be there.
Regarding the concerns about overgrowth Ball said, "It's a little frustrating because had they (bus drivers) contacted us we could have taken care of it. But that's neither here nor there. As soon as we heard about it yesterday we programmed it for immediate attention so next week our maintenance crews will be out there trimming the vegetation."
NBC 5 contacted bus driver Benny Douglas after hearing from DART. Douglas said he's "real happy" about the plans to trim the overgrowth. He also said he can live with the big electrical box. He'll have to.
When asked why the bus drivers didn't go straight to DART with their concerns, Douglas said he'd spoken to a safety official with Dallas County Schools thinking it was the school district's responsibility to maintain the intersection.
