Public Transit Driver busted at the wheel!

Morcheeba

Morcheeba

Buaidh no Bàs
Adventurer
Joined
Jan 9, 2007
Messages
4,070
Age
44
Location
G.W.N.
FFXIV
Morcheeba
So an old friend of mine took this pic on his way to work one morning.

Some say we have no right to 'ruin' a mans life over something as 'trivial' as texting behind the wheel.

I say bullshit. It's his #1 priority to get his passengers to their stops safely. And it's our responsibility to bring to light actions such as these.

180389_495922113508_506363508_6252450_6253242_n.jpg

here are some comments made on the pic (via Facebook)

So I ask, do you think it was beyond reasonable for Mikey (my buddy who sent in the pic) to get the media attention he did over this issue? After having a discussion with him thru pm, he'd said his motivation was that he sees this all the time from drivers, while on the highways.

I'm Crystal btw and vocal as ever.

Spoiler:


Sara Murphy glad you did.

Hilary Welch I am a genius

Crystal MacDougall wow really? The audacity of some people! And for fucks sakes, people need to TURN OFF their gadgetry for 1 bloody hour, tune OUT, unplug yourselves from this bullshit we call society.

Tanya Gagnon just saw your pic on co 24

Chris Dignard forward it with the bus route n # to the toronto sun

Tanya Gagnon its already in the paper.. mikey pic is everywhere this morning

Chris Dignard oh thought that was your pic lol

Kim Farrell You know you people who think the public sector worker is your playground really piss me off. Let me ask you, would you like someone to splash a picture of you picking your nose while you drive your car or shoving a burger down your throat while you drive. What makes you the expert on who deserves to have their lives ruined! and at what cost will it take for you guys to MIND YOUR BUSINESS!

Kim Farrell Maybe if your lucky we or you will see your picture splashed all over the news and then you wont think its so funny!

Crystal MacDougall ‎@ Kim, if you're serious you need to smarten the F up. This mans responsibility is EVERYONE on that bus. He is for all intensive purposes a PUBLIC SERVICE MEMBER.

You'd be okay if everyone 'minded their business' (because apparently their... safety isn't their business) and that driver rear ended a car on the highway causing a pile-up and deaths of everyone on that bus all because he couldn't wait til his next pit stop to read or write a fucking text?!?! And that's without saying it's against the god damn law.

What's fucking sad is we need to write and pass bills to tell the general public to exercise common sense. Moron.

Are you serious?? Grow up.

Kim Farrell ‎@Crystal And what is your responsibility to the safety of the public? I am grown up...i'm not saying the actions of this driver is warranted... what i'm saying is that nobody has the right to make light of someone else's situation while... they are doing the exact same thing...there is no difference between many passengers and only a few...safety is the key here. You need to grow the fuck up! Being a public service worker does not give anyone exclusive right to exploit the situation for public trial. Sorry, you can't convince me of that.

Crystal MacDougall Exploit? If you're going to be throwing words like that around you may want to brush up on the meanings.

It IS Mikey and everyone else's responsibility to make it known that shit like this is taking place. It is EVERYONE'S responsibility, ...period.

There's no exploitation when a public service individual is going to break the law and endanger everyone's lives blatantly and for everyone to see.

In fact it's quite the opposite. It's irresponsible for people to turn their heads.

And you're damn right in saying there's no difference between 1 passenger or 30. It's irresponsible disregard for the safety of your passengers.

If it were an officer of the law would we not make the same big deal out of it? Hell yes. They are in a position to uphold the law and to break in AND endanger a passenger is more than enough reason to "out" that individual

I DO NOT feel sorry for this man, he made the choice. He's in control of his choices and he knows full well he's 1, breaking the law, 2 PROBABLY breaking company policy and 3, endangering his passengers which is his #1 priority.

whaaaaaaaaa, I don't give 2 shits about what stresses he may suffer for his choice.

Crystal MacDougall people need to stop their crying and own up. take some bloody accountability for your actions. It's no ones fault but their own. That's the difference between children and adults.

Kim Farrell One day Crystal, the shoe may be on the other foot and i would love to hear your response to that situation. let me tell you, when the blood hounds are all over ya, don't come crying on anybody's shoulder looking for a sympathetic ear cause Karma is a bitch!

Crystal MacDougall One day eh? I highly doubt that. I'm a very conscientious and considerate person. I think of other peoples feelings quite often.

I would never endanger someone especially for something as ridiculous as a stupid text.

Karma is a bitch and I...'m her #1 fan.

Crystal MacDougall I can't discuss this further with you, I think you're in need of a reality check. Probably a long time coming to.

Lets just hope 'one day' there isn't a major accident like that one on #11 a week ago that you lose a loved one in all over a bloody text message that could have waited.

Something as trivial as 'r u gunna b home?'
 
Last edited:
Yep. Personal responsibility is something that has sadly been on the decline for a long time.

The driver was being foolish, taking a chance with the safety of his passengers, and other motorists, for what? An exchange of non-critical information that almost undoubtedly could have waited until he was either done work or on break.
 
Just to play Devil's Advocate, but what if it was a State phone and there is a policy that if it goes off drivers have to view it? I obviously have no idea if it's true, and I don't think even a backwards government like Canukington would institute a ridiculous policy as such but you never can tell.
 
yea no it's against the law lol

I know we canucks can be assbackwards but not in this case.

And to be fair, I know that there are many drivers still on the roads texting while driving, but the big issue is that he's a bus driver. Not alone in his car or putting his friends lives at risk etc.

The TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) is only investigating and not jumping all over the driver (there have been 2 more pics and videos of other drivers doing the same since Mikeys initial submission). They say that anytime a passenger is witness to acts like these they're to report the route #, driver and any evidence they do have.

This has been all over the news today and all the local stations are holding polls asking the public for their opinions on the matter.

Reports from civilians on the streets of T-dot have pretty much all said it's beyond irresponsible when you should be focusing on the road.

E- just to add, they still use CB's for communication. CB's are not as 'much' an issue as you pretty much can pick-up/hang-up without even looking to where you're grabbing and communicate without taking your eyes off the road.
 
Last edited:
In that case, yea, he was being irresponsible and should have the book thrown at him. But if TTC is anything like the Maryland Transit Authority, they are Unioned up and will be hard to fire.

Don't remember the details, but we had a bus drive verbally abuse passengers (or assault them, can't remember which and I'm not going to search for the story), was fired, but re-hired after the union applied pressure to the MTA administrators.
 
I'm sure they are unionized. Makes it near impossible for the public to do much with reporting direct to the companies. But make it public knowledge by getting the media involved and they may find their hands tied.
 
The incident I talked about was in the media. Driver was still hired back.
 
Only when unions are involved.
 
Last edited:
only a compleate fucking child would say you don't have the right to "ruin this mans life" over something so "trivial"

this man is ENDANGERING everyone's life on that bus and who knows how many outside the bus.

If the transit authority doesn't crack down on that shit then this totally deserves to blow up in a media shit storm, nothing buckles a company's idiotic policy quicker then a few news story's on prime time t.v. and a torrent of angry phone calls. (then again not always. like lucki said, unions.)

I recently had a confrontation with one of my good friend of mine over this issue, he likes to text when driving, and I give him hell if he try's it while I'm in the car, he try's the whole "dude I'm good, i got it, I can watch the road fine" and all the other standard excuses. After a couple minutes of arguing I smacked him right in the back of the head and told him I didn't give a rats ass how confident he was in his ability to do so, it wasn't just his life he was risking, he tried calling me paranoid and I called him an inconsiderate prick. I made it clear that crap doesn't fly while I'm in the car tho.

I say more power to your friend, hes what you call a good citizen, and he should tell anyone that has a problem with it to grow up and quit acting like some idiot 16 year old with a learners permit and no respect for lives they carry in their hands when driving with passengers.
 
Last edited:
As a state employee, I fully except to be under public scrutiny for my actions. Even if I’m not breaking the law or any policy, if the public feels an action needs to be address, then the public has to make their voices heard and the Media is one of the best avenues for such things. That said there is a difference between bringing issue to light so it may be addressed and a lynch mob. Often times the public get over heated on an issue and fall into to the ladder. This happens when they fail to use their own critical thinking skills and ask important questions. Was there a policy in place to address this specific behavior or does one need to be created, does another policy kind of cover it but not specific and needs to be revisited. Did the person have reason to believe his actions where ok? Just because something seems like common sense to one of us or even the majority of us, it doesn’t mean it does to someone else. This is the reason we have to create policies, so that people are on notice of what is expected.

In this specific case what the news is reporting is that Ontario does have a law against using a mobile device while driver. So I would expect there to be some kind of disciplinary action.

On a related note one of city bus drivers here hit a student and injured them. The driver was placed on administrate work and a lot of people got into an up roar he wasn’t fired. The reason he wasn’t fired is because there is some debate to who was at fault. While the cop cited the driver, cops aren’t judges and can’t make the ultimate determination. The issue will go to trial and if the driver is found guilty, he will then be terminated.
 
Unfortunately, the only thing that will probably happen to the offenders is "disciplinary actions", which is probably just a slap on the wrist and forced time off, and then they'll be back on the job.
 
Lucki said:
Unfortunately, the only thing that will probably happen to the offenders is "disciplinary actions", which is probably just a slap on the wrist and forced time off, and then they'll be back on the job.
Click to expand...

Atleast thatll be enough to make the idiot think twice before texting while driving a bus again.

Oh and that Kim Farrel from the face book comments, what an unbelievable, idiotic, selfish, child. Endangering that mans job is totally out of the line but him endangering 40+ peoples lives is A-OK huh? god the unmitigated self absorbed idiocy of some people just makes my head spin. someones mother/grandmother should have smacked some more common sense into them as a child.
 
Last edited:
Speaking for Mikey, thank you guys. He's now feeling shame for outing the driver and possibly costing him his job =( There's a lot of support from his friends and strangers as we're all sharing this story on FB, telling him that he's done well. He did the right thing! If we all continue to turn a cheek to acts like these we'd all be doomed.

Now I'm certain it comes as no surprise at my attacks as I'm sure I've proven time and time again how very passionate and plain angry I get over specific subjects. But I felt like smashing my laptop when reading her comments and justifications. Saying we (I) was exploiting the situation because it angered me and I spoke out against him and show no pity for what-ever disciplinary actions he may face.

'MIND YOUR BUSINESS' like fuck! And she's in her 50's. That's why I told her to grow up because she's twice my age and THAT ignorant to these issues. As a mom, if I had to take my lil one on the bus and saw a driver texting, it would be hard for me not to physically attack him at the next stop!

E -And Lucki, you are quite right. He most likely will be getting no more than a slap on the wrist. And because Mikey submitted that pic last Wednesday and since many have followed, if they canned 1 they'd have to can all. But this is not the first outrage against TTC in the last couple years.
 
Last edited:
I have to agree with you Cheebs. It's one thing to be texting and driving when you are in your own damn car, but it's a completely different animal when you are driving a vehicle of that caliber (bus, 18-wheeler, etc) where the vehicle being driven can cause tremendous damage and has passengers on it as well to boot. Tell your friend not to feel bad for what he did. Hell, had I been him I woulda done more than just take a pic and out him, I prolly woulda bitched him out or kicked his ass for endangering me and the other passengers like that.
 
It's been illegal for over a year now.

I loved the TTC's president saying 'we all could be sighted everyday doing something 'inappropriate'. Not illegal but inappropriate.
 
leave it to city officials to think they aren't bound by the very laws they pass down on the rest of us -.- freakin typical
 
I bitch my brother out for doing this and normally hide his phone from him. I would bitch this guy out too, this stupid ass isn't worth my safety.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top