TTC to passengers: Don’t snap texting drivers
Published 1 hour ago

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9886/ce67ee57480f9c5089b40cc.jpg
Alexia Schell of Scarborough took a this picture of a TTC driver apparently texting while driving the 54 Lawrence bus this week.
ALEXIA SCHELL PHOTO
Amy Dempsey and Curtis Rush Staff Reporters

The Toronto Transit Commission wants you to quit playing paparazzi with its employees.

The please-don’t-play-gotcha request comes after at least three TTC drivers were caught on camera this week by shocked passengers who observed them texting or chatting on cellphones while operating buses.

“We ask that people not do that,” TTC spokesman Brad Ross said Friday. “We don’t require photographic evidence to discipline drivers. Cameras in the face of operators can escalate a situation that doesn’t need to be escalated.”

Instead of snapping photos, “we ask that they call us, report the bus and route number and date and time of the occurrence,” Ross said.

The TTC has disciplined employees for texting while driving before without pictures. Cellphone records, for example, can be used in internal investigations.

York University student Robert Sauer, who took video of a bus driver apparently chatting on his cellphone while driving earlier this week, worries that without it there wouldn’t be enough to go on to punish drivers responsible for “endangering the safety of the public.”

“Then it really just seems like it’s our word against their word,” said Sauer, who used his iPhone as he rode on the 196 University Rocket from York to Downsview station. “Obviously if there’s an issue with so many people taking videos and pictures of their drivers texting, there’s a huge problem.”

Union president Bob Kinnear said TTC drivers are “frustrated by the ‘gotcha’” practices of riders because it creates a wrong impression that most drivers are irresponsible. “These are isolated cases,” Kinnear pointed out.

However, the union leader said it’s “completely justifiable” for patrons to snap pictures of drivers who are texting, as long as they don’t cross the line and try to film drivers hoping to catch them in the act.

Instead of trying to capture a “gotcha” moment, Kinnear advises passengers to talk to the driver, asking him or her to stop texting while driving.

“I’d say, ‘Do you mind not texting while you’re driving from point A to point B?”

Mike Schmitz said he was too stunned to confront the driver he caught texting on the 165 Weston Rd. North bus on Wednesday.

“I was just kind of shocked. I had no idea what to say,” Schmitz said. “After I got off the bus I had a thousand clever things to say. But at the time I didn’t.”

Schmitz said driver was going about 50 km/h with his attention divided between the road and his phone.

“I was like, ‘Is this really happening?’ He didn’t even notice when I took the photo.”

Alexia Schell of Scarborough used her iPhone to snap a photo of a bus driver texting in the Lawrence Ave. and Kennedy Rd. area at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Schell was with her 1-year-old son and standing at the front of the moving bus at the time.

“I think he was on a BlackBerry,” she said. “He heard me take the picture, but by the time he turned around the phone was back in my purse. He was full texting, looking up and down. I was so upset but I didn’t want to say anything because I had my son with me.”

Schell said she was “very concerned because if the driver had to make a knee-jerk stop, the passengers would have been falling all over and I had a stroller with me.”

Texting on a cellphone or handheld device while driving has been banned in Ontario since October 2009. Drivers who do it can face fines up to $500.

The photos have surfaced at a time when the TTC remains under fire on customer service. Criticism of the “essential service” has been high ever since a commuter photographed a TTC fare collector sleeping on the job last January, and later, when a passenger took video of a driver’s prolonged late-night coffee break in a doughnut shop, while his bus sat idling.

Buses have closed-circuit television cameras, but Ross said they cannot be used for disciplinary reasons.

“We have an agreement with the union that they will be used only for police investigations.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/929736--ttc-to-passengers-don-t-snap-texting-drivers

This guy should be suspended without pay and the Toronto Police should fine him, obviously too many drivers are still breaking the rules and they need to make an example of him. As for the request to stop filming the drivers and other personel I say too bad. They're filming us on all the buses, streetcars, and subways now. As long as they are doing their job then they have nothing to worry about.

The TTC really needs to get it's act together, they need to remember who pays 75% of their wages, the riders.

"Please stop photographing us as we endanger your lives" Womp Womp...

Here's a hint, passengers don't care to take pics of drivers doing their jobs the right way.

:lol: How frkn weak is that "request"? They are embarrassed, that's all, and want us to stop embarrassing them. If you send a note, nothing gets done. NOTHING. Maybe they would be best to send the drivers back for remedial courses and remind them how to concentrate on their work so we don't get hurt.
Talk about shooting the messenger.

Hehe , this will make ppl do it even more...it seems the TTC is falling apart....:ohno:
A Random question , are all TTC Bus operators protected by glass?

That's kind of a new thing. Soon they will put a film on it that makes it tough to record video through.

A bit absurd to tell people not to take evidence of others breaking the law.

I never see drivers texting here, or even talking on cell phones. Is driving a bus in Toronto really that boring that they have time to do this?

Texting TTC drivers fired
Published On Tue Feb 01 2011

Amy Dempsey Staff Reporter

Three TTC drivers accused of texting while steering busloads of passengers across the city have been fired.

A source close to the investigation confirmed the news Star on Monday night.

The drivers were caught on camera last week steering with cellphones in hand. The photos were taken by shocked passengers who quickly whipped out their smart phones when they saw what the bus drivers were up to.

The TTC launched an investigation after the photos surfaced late last week.

On Monday, officials weren’t commenting on the status of the case.

“We have a disciplinary process that we need to follow,” TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said. “We would never jeopardize the discipline process.”

“What I can tell you is that we take the matter extremely seriously and our actions will be commensurate with the seriousness with which we take this matter.”

Union president Bob Kinnear said he could not comment because the matter is being dealt with internally.

“The TTC is conducting an investigation and the TTC is taking measures,” he said.

Texting while driving has been outlawed in Ontario since October 2009 and was banned under TTC policy long before that.

Mike Schmitz, the iPhone photographer behind the first photo that surfaced last week, was upset when he heard the driver had been fired.

“That’s not what I wanted at all. Not at all,” he said. “I feel pretty bad now.”

Schmitz said he would have been satisfied with a simple warning for the driver he caught texting while steering the 165 Weston Rd. North bus through traffic last Wednesday.

He said the driver was going about 50 km/h with his attention divided between the road and his phone.

“It is a bummer,” Schmitz said. “But still, it happened.”

Last week, the TTC asked customers to stop snapping “gotcha” photos of misbehaving drivers.

Ross said if passengers spot drivers using their phones behind the wheel, they should call the TTC to report the bus and route number and date and time of the occurrence.

“Cameras in the face of operators can escalate a situation that doesn’t need to be escalated,” Ross said.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/931262--texting-ttc-drivers-fired

Ross said if passengers spot drivers using their phones behind the wheel, they should call the TTC to report the bus and route number and date and time of the occurrence.


I bet without those images those drivers would still be behind the wheel.

Ross said if passengers spot drivers using their phones behind the wheel, they should call the TTC to report the bus and route number and date and time of the occurrence.


I bet without those images those drivers would still be behind the wheel.

Would be interesting to see a media expose on how the TTC handles complaints. Then when it is clear that they won't do anything, bring the photographic evidence forward and ask them, "If you don't want us to take pictures of TTC employees not doing their jobs, then how come you won't punish them without said evidence?"

Brad Ross might be forced to step down if that happened. :D

Would be interesting to see a media expose on how the TTC handles complaints. Then when it is clear that they won't do anything, bring the photographic evidence forward and ask them, "If you don't want us to take pictures of TTC employees not doing their jobs, then how come you won't punish them without said evidence?"

Brad Ross might be forced to step down if that happened. :D


That would be great to see. Marketplace should do it.

Not to mention that the buses are never on time. There are some routes, where even if the frequency is only 15 minutes, you're have a better chance of catching it if you showed up at the bus stop randomly. That's why they have signs posted in the buses telling passengers not to attack the drivers...

That happens here. Buses on our 15-minute routes are often 5 minutes late, sometimes as much as 10 minutes late or even 5 minutes early. And many of our bus drivers are quite chatty, especially on quieter routes, you rarely see anyone attack them but conversations between drivers and passengers are common.

The TTC route that I take has a bus frequency that is pretty much random. Supposedly 15 minutes per bus, but there are always drivers who call in sick (decide to stay home) and there are no replacement drivers. Then you end up waiting 30 minutes or more. When you call the TTC and ask what happened, they will just say, "I don't know" and hang up on you.

I HATE when passengers talk to the driver other than quickly for directions. I've often seen passengers (usually a middle aged woman talking with a male driver) standing beside the driving yapping away, blocking the door for people getting on and off. Not to mention dividing the drivers' attention. In Hong Kong, the buses have a sign that says "Do NOT talk to the driver".

I'm lucky, the most I ever wait is about 2 minutes. I usually walk over to Broadview from my front door where I have three different lines to choose from to get downtown. I hope on whichever is first or empty. King, Dundas, College, they all get me to where I need to go. I also just discovered that the carlaw bus just a few steps from my front door goes right to Union Station. It's very frequent, I think because it goes to union it has a short wait time 3-4mins even though each time I've used it I've only ever had to share it with no more then 4 people. It's like my own little Union Station shuttle bus.

Yea, I can't see how they can discipline staff without evidence. Union agreements prevent the security cameras from being used for disciplinary purposes, so without evidence, if the drivers denies doing it (pretty darn likely if there's no proof) then on what grounds would they be sanctioned? If all it took was a passenger complaint, people could call in a complaint about anything and have a driver reprimanded without any proof it was even true.

The TTC was probably just caving to union bellyaching about workplace privacy policies preventing photographing or videoing and how management wasn't doing enough to ban such an "intrusion".

I remember the news had this incident where the bus driver attacked a passenger and started strangling him. The camera of the bus recorded it all. But guess what, the footage mysteriously disappeared...