STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An MTA bus driver has been suspended for 20 days after being caught on video by a Staten Island woman as he was fiddling with a cell phone while at the wheel of an express bus.
Maria of Pleasant Plains, a single mother of three children, supplied the Advance with a 37-second video of an MTA bus driver who used his cell phone to apparently text while driving an X22A express bus starting at the Lincoln Tunnel and continuing through much of the route on the New Jersey Turnpike during the downpour on Wednesday night. Maria said she confronted the driver, but that he didn't respond.
The Advance forwarded the video to the MTA, and spokeswoman Judie Glave responded that the agency had zero tolerance for texting while driving and would conduct a probe.
She said that the driver would be disciplined and, sure enough, he was given a 20-day, suspension without pay, Ms. Glave said on Friday. The driver, whose name has not been released, has been employed by New York City Transit since 1993 and this is his first cell phone offense, Ms. Glave said.
Meanwhile, the story has made the rounds of the major media outlets, Facebook and Twitter. Comments posted on the Advance web site ranged from praising Maria as a hero who saved lives by her actions to a "snitch."
Reader reaction to the driver ran the gamut from those who considered it a harmless activity to others who thought the driver should be fired.
Said SILive.com user NoJudging: "I know who this is. A really, really nice man. Did he make a bad decision? Yes. Could he have waited until he got to S.I. or pull over at the rest stop to handle this if it was that important? Maybe. The point I am making here is, people make bad decisions and choices all throughout their lives. No one person here can have a 'Mightier Than Thou' attitude on this thread because everyone here, I am almost POSITIVE, has made a bad decision at one time or another in their life."
Another reader, claiming to be a bus driver, expressed similar sentiment.
"Well I won't defend this driver, he screwed up royally and the TA will handle it," said busdryvr99. "All I will say, as from my handle you can see I'm a bus driver/operator, and driving as much as I do, I see plenty of people on the phone, texting watching tv, porn videos of some sort. My bus is much higher so I can see inside your cars. Before you condemn this man look at what you do first and if you text make it your example to stop."
Others felt the driver got what he deserved and applauded the woman who shared the video.
"She did the right thing and my have saved lives," said zoosermom. "Without he video and the Advance, it woud have been a he-said/she-said situation where nothing could be proved... Had the driver on the Turnpike crashed he could have killed scores of people and destroyed countless families. He should be publicly shamed and punished. The fine he will get is nothing."
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