Bus operators need to remember that the ubiquitous video camera is recording all aspects of life these days. I bring this up because in my daily search for interesting transit news and commentary, I found three articles about bus drivers behaving badly, with the results caught on tape.
In the first instance, a bus driver in Birmingham, England, is secretly filmed by a passenger as he drives down a highway while paging through a small book. To keep the vehicle on the road, he steers with his elbows. He was suspended and his dismissal is "likely."
A coffee break in the workplace is not unusual or generally discouraged, but if your workplace is a city transit bus, you should avoid stopping at Starbucks in the middle of your run with passengers on board. That's what a bus operator in Orlando, Fla., did recently, and, yes, his coffee run was caught on tape. He received a reprimand, but did manage to get downtown on time.
Not to be outdone by his peers, a bus driver in Atlanta stopped by the side of the road, stood in the driver's door of his paratransit bus and peed into the middle of the street. Unluckily for him, a passerby captured a few seconds of the incident on video and called police. He was suspended without pay for three days.
There's certainly nothing wrong with reading, drinking coffee and emptying your bladder, but you've got to choose your spots. Timing is everything.
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