Airports are No Place for Demolition Derbies

When I was growing up in Boston, there were a number of small racetracks where every weekend there would be demolition derbies. Owners would take their clunkers for one last fling before the junk heap. There they would race around the track trying to hit as many cars as possible to immobilize them. Big crowds would gather and cheer each crash; the harder the bang, the louder the applause. The last car running was the winner. It was great sport.   Sometimes looking at equipment around the ramp, I’m reminded of those demolition derbies. Some of the baggage and service carts seem to have engaged in a pretty brutal game with those armor-plated tugs. Curbstones and even buildings are scarred and marred from violent encounters with those tugs. These bangs and crashes are often treated by the workers on the ramp as a big joke. But it’s not a joke on the airport.   All this mayhem costs money and risks injuries and greater damage. From all my years on the ramp, I rarely saw anyone ever held accountable.  It’s as though those tugs were commanded by phantom drivers. The failure to hold people accountable breeds contempt for the ground equipment and fosters a disregard for safety.   What really gets me is that these drivers often save their reckless behavior for the airport ramp. I’ve seen these same drivers get off work and into their own pristine automobiles and drive as safely as you would expect them to drive on the ramp. So what gives? What makes them take out so much anger and aggression when they get to the airport? And why doesn’t management make more of an effort to ferret out those responsible?