Metro mistake causing problems for Spanish speakers

SEATTLE -(KomoNews.com)- For the first time ever, King County Metro has printed millions of bus schedules with English and Spanish translations sitting side-by-side, but one very important phrase appears to have been lost in translation.

Three times each year, Metro prints more than 2 million bus schedules for its 155 routes. But a third of the schedules now in circulation have a mistake that could affect Spanish speaking bus riders.

«So what it says here is there is no service on these routes, weekends or holidays, and it mentions Fourth of July and Labor Day,» said Jaime Mendez of KOMO’s Spanish language sister station, KUNS.

But that’s not true. There is bus service on weekends, and the line referring to holidays should have said July Fourth and Labor Day run on weekend schedules.

Several Spanish speaking riders looked over the schedules and spotted the mistake.

«That would be very confusing,» said Gloria Cisneros.

A Spanish speaking bus driver first caught the mistake.

«The translation was correct, but in the production process we made a mistake and got the wrong block of copy into the timetable,» said Jeff Switzer.

Despite the mistake, Metro has chosen not to pull the schedules. Instead, it has posted signs in English and Spanish pointing out the mistake and correcting it.

A printed correction will be made in mid September when the next run of 2 million schedules is distributed.

«We want to make it as easy as possible for Spanish speakers to find the information (they need),» Switzer said.

Metro also offers a free telephone service that translates bus schedules into 240 different languages.

Watch the video: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Metro-mistake-causing-problems-for-Spanish-speakers-217851231.html?tab=video&c=y