14
THURSDAY, APR IL 30, 2020 • KOKOMO TR IBUNE / PHAROS-TR IBUNE
CARSON GERBER
KOKOMO TRIBUNE
F
or years, Tom Huffman worked on
NASCAR and IndyCar teams,
transporting equipment and doing
advertising. But he decided to become
a bus driver on the Kokomo City-Line
Trolley over five years ago after
retiring as a security officer at then-St.
Joseph Hospital.
“I decided retirement wasn’t for
me, and I was offered a position and I
couldn’t turn it down,” he said.
But the 67-year-old said he never
could have imagined he would be
providing free public transportation
during a worldwide pandemic that has
brought much of the area’s economy to
a halt.
Now, Huffman, and the city’s other
trolley drivers, are providing a service
that’s become more crucial than ever
amid the statewide stay-at-home order.
“We have an essential service here,”
he said. “We’re taking people to dialysis
and doctors’ offices and grocery stores.
That’s been the main thing we’re doing
now.”
Today, Huffman said he mostly
drives the Spirit of Kokomo buses,
which provide direct transportation
to locations all around the city, and
fills in to drive trolley routes when he’s
needed.
And he’s happy to be doing so despite
the virus. That’s because he knows
everyone riding the buses is safe due
to the extra precautions and safety
measures that have been implemented
since March.
Huffman said those measures
include requiring every passenger to
wear a mask. Each bus and trolley has a
stockpile on board to give to those who
might not have one. Drivers are also
required to wear masks and gloves.
Trolleys are limiting the number
of passengers on board to 10 to allow
social distancing. Spirit buses try not
to have more than five people on board,
he said.
Throughout the day, Huffman wipes
down the entire bus with sanitizing
clothes and then sprays the interior
with disinfectant. A company is also
steam washing each bus and trolley to
ensure they are as clean and sanitary
as possible.
And because of those precautions,
Huffman said, he feels perfectly safe
providing a service that so many
depend on.
“We’ve taken all the precautions we
needed to take, and if people adhere to
what we’re asking them to do, we’ll get
through this,” he said. “I know it’s a bad
situation, but we’re taking all the right
steps to make people feel comfortable
and make sure we don’t pass on this
virus. That’s all we can do, and we’ll
continue doing it until we see this thing
through.”
Huffman said the fact that he’s
out working amid the coronavirus
outbreak doesn’t make him feel like a
hero. He said it’s the kind of job that
has to be done, and he’s glad he can do
it, because he knows many of the pas-
sengers’ lives depend on it – whether
there’s a pandemic or not.
“If we didn’t provide this service, I
don’t know how people who survive
getting through this, because a lot of
them have no family at all to help them
out,” he said. “We try to do the best we
can to get them to where they need to
go on time.”
A CRUCIAL SERVICE
Drivers get people where they need to go
Photo by Tim Bath
Tom Huffman
is a bus driver
with Kokomo
City-Line
Trolley.
Hoffman and
the city’s other
drivers are
providing a
service that’s
become more
crucial than
ever amid the
stay-at-home
order.
