T bus driver fired for chatting on cellphone
By adamg - 6/12/09 - 11:55 am
The MBTA says this photo shows a Route 111 driver on the phone at a stop. At least he wasn't driving.
Associated Press reports the driver was spotted yakking it up on a surveillance camera despite extensive employee notices and widespread media attention to the T's new ban on employee cellphone use.
Channel 4 reports the driver, whom the T would not identify, borrowed a phone from a passenger and then made the bus wait while he completed a five-minute phone call. The Herald reports he was ratted out by a nearby resident who saw something and so said something.
On Tuesday, an Orange Line employee was suspended when a supervisor spotted him coming off a train with a Bluetooth earpiece on.
Comments
Added Bonus...
to weeding out distracted drivers, evidently we'll also be weeding out idiots who can't be bothered to pay attention to major news events that effect their jobs. I mean, seriously, how did the driver miss this whole thing? Probably too busy yakking on a cell phone!
Good News
Not getting into the whole "yes, they shouldn't be allowed to use cells" or "no, it's ridiculous to ban cells" argument, but if some driver is stoopid enough to be caught using one during the current clime, I don't want that person behind the wheel.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Agreed, suldog
It's pretty remarkable, actually: In this economy, to risk a decent job with benefits, secured by a union contract, and with all the attention devoted to this concern...oh, never mind.
Someone with judgment that poor is exactly the kind of idiot who puts riders at risk.
Unfortunately, I doubt this
Unfortunately, I doubt this is the last idiot working at the MBTA to get fired. It gives the good, hard working employees, and the MBTA public image, a bad name.
As for "It's an emergency". In this type of job, you call the MBTA dispatchers, who then get in contact with the employee. If it's a real emergency, the employee works with the dispatchers to get someone to cover the route.
It's the name of this type of work. Sorry, but get used to it.
Could you imagine a commercial air line pilot stopping the plane on the tarmac to take a phone call in the bathroom? Or setting autopilot over a busy city to see what time he was supposed to pick the kids up on his way home?
autopilot is the norm
Or setting autopilot over a busy city to see what time he was supposed to pick the kids up on his way home?
Actually, it's pretty common for a flight to be flown almost entirely on autopilot these days. A lot of pilots are none too pleased about it, saying it (unsurprisingly) leads to pilots who don't have a feel for how their planes 'drive'.
They should add customer
They should add customer service agents to the cell phone ban. It is normal to walk into a T stop and see a customer service agent sitting in the booth talking on their phone, not accessible to providing any customer service (or discouraging fare evaders). They don't seem very approachable in their new booths, talking on their cell phones.
When we paid 100 million for the T to get the automated fare collection system, the T said none of the the fare booth operators would be laid off because the T was going to get them out from the booths to help and assistance passengers. So the new system helped the T to relieve some of their workers of working.
So, the driver borrows a passenger's cell phone. Reminds me
of the Brady Bunch episode where Greg was banned from driving and convinced himself it was OK to borrow a friend's car because Dad told him "no driving the family car" instead of "no driving, period".
He wasn't driving the bus.
He wasn't driving the bus. The bus was stopped and he was on the phone. I hadn't really envisioned people getting fired for talking on the phone while the vehicle they are in charge of was at a complete stand-still.
Whit
Read it all
Not only did he stop the bus to make this phone call while on duty, but he ended up 5 minutes LATE on his schedule because of it! Unacceptable! He should be disciplined just for that alone. It wouldn't matter to me if he was sipping a latte, chatting with a friend outside the bus, or asleep in his seat...intentionally delaying your route to do whatever you please instead of doing your job is unacceptable.
I do agree that he should
I do agree that he should get in trouble for stopping the bus and making it late. My bus stops at the West Lynn garage everyday to switch drivers. The new driver is often late. We sit their for 15 minutes sometimes just waiting.
Exact words, Greg!
Next, the T should hire bus drivers solely on their skill in backing the bus into the garage without knocking an egg off a traffic cone.
That is one heck of a busy
That is one heck of a busy bus route. Every second he was yacking 3 more people showed up at every bus stop waiting for the next bus.
Look at the shadows
It is either very early in the morning or after rush hour in the evening.
All the same, he stopped to make a call for five minutes? He didn't think that this would get him into trouble?
There is no end to rush hour
There is no end to rush hour on the 111, hang out at Haymarket sometime and wait for that bus. At its peak the bus is supposed to run every 5 minutes and can not keep up with the rush.
According to the T, the camera also
showed the driver letting several passengers onto the bus without paying fares prior to his stopping to make the phone call. So, there's probably more to the story here.
BTW, the most recent Boston.com update stated "MTBA management" at one point. Freudian slip here? (for the uninitiated - MTBA is the acronym for "Mean Time Between Accidents")
um...
...any chance the T could upgrade their hiring process? cheers.
Dan Grabauskas narrates video of the guy
6:40 p.m. on Monday, Grabauskas says he denied a) stopping the bus and b) for five minutes, even though he was caught on both video and GPS:
Overdoing this...?
Are we overdoing this?
The T-Crash was caused by a guy who was texting WHILE driving!
This is a situation where a guy was NOT carrying his cell phone..according to regulations.
He was NOT driving while using the phone.
He stopped the vehicle in order to make his call.
(I don't know, maybe he had a kid sick at school? An accident at home? Had a wife stuck with a flat tire? None of which I would mind if he made a call,a s long as he was stopped, and didn't put anyone in danger.)
Now, if it's simply a question of delaying the run, that's a different story.
But it seems we are overdoing it. Like when a kid stabbs his classmates, then the next kid who brings a butter knife to school to butter his toast gets expelled...... I.E...overdone!
over doing it
You are absolutely 110% correct. Its very, VERY evil to ban such a thing at work. Why? BECAUSE I SAID SO!
How else can one be connected to the innernets! Facebook and Twitter, We need These services!!
All in all, Single mothers working while their children are at daycare, need to be notified if their child has a fever and needs to go home.
Can they not check their voicemail on break time?????????????????????????????????????????????
WHERE ARE THE GREEN LINE TWITTER POLICE!$ WE NEED MOAR GOBERNMNET!!
AMIRITE?