WASHINGTON -- Metro is investigating a bus driver who apparently just couldn't wait for a phone call and allegedly talked on her cell phone while driving a bus.
Maybe it's that won't-happen-to-me attitude that would allow a bus or train operator to ignore the recent texting and napping on the job allegations that caused the transit agency to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for such transgressions, but in the digital age, absolutely anything anyone does at anytime in public (or in private) is being photographed and/or filmed and posted online immediately, ruining all of our lives forever.
Between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, when the No. 63 bus from Takoma station stopped outside the Petworth Metro Station in northwest Washington, the driver got out and started talking on her cell phone, according to the rider who posted a picture of the driver allegedly on the phone on the blog Unsuck DC Metro. After about three minutes and with the riders yelling at the driver to get back on board and continue the route, she did, but she allegedly continued talking with the phone pressed to her ear as she pulled back into traffic and drove several hundred more feet.
If I were smarter (and more awake), I would have caught this moment on video, but she sat down and pulled out into traffic with phone to ear, and drove several hundred feet before ending her call. I got a crappy picture with my cell phone. It was the best I could get from my vantage point. If you zoom in on the driver, you can see her holding up a phone to her ear with one hand and pulling out into traffic with the other.
"Yes I have seen this photograph, and in fact it was reported to us yesterday, yesterday evening," Metro General Manager John Catoe said after News4's Chris Gordon showed it to him Thursday. "And my reaction is: I'm ashamed and I'm angered."
The driver has been identified and an investigation that could lead to her termination is under way, Catoe said.
"I've made clear the consequences of using a cell phone and operating a Metro vehicle, and once we determine this is our employee and this is what happened, you all know the consequences of it," Catoe said.
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The union representing transit workers issued a statement saying, "The union is prepared to follow the grievance protocol for any and all members disciplined or terminated under WMATA's zero-tolerance policy. ATU Local 689 will closely monitor all investigations and personnel actions to ensure the appropriate outcome. Advancing safety is our No. 1 priority."
