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Amid calls for WMATA to fire a Metrorail operator who was caught texting while driving a Blue Line train, the transit agency has released a revised policy outlining a new zero tolerance approach to drivers who use their cell phones while working. Metrobus and Metrorail operators caught using a cell phone, texting or using a PDA while operating a vehicle will be fired immediately under the new policy, which takes effect Monday, July 13. Up until now, drivers were subject to a three strikes policy, where the first offense resulted in a five-day suspension without pay, then a 10-day suspension without pay, followed by termination only after a third offense. Since the policy change was announced, another YouTube video has surfaced that claims to show a Metro operator falling asleep on the job -- though it's fairly unclear just based on the video. WMATA is reviewing the tape.
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I'm sure this will work just as well as every other zero-tolerance law. What they need is a Less-Than-Zero-tolerance law, because if there's anything this town needs more of, it's heroin, snuff films, and Robert Downey Jr.
As long as it has the Bangles covering "Hazy shade of winter" I support all less than zero tolerance laws.
Kind of pathetic that they have to have such a policy in the first place. I just can't understand how anyone can think trying to operate a bus or train and texting someone at the same time is a good idea.
And yet otherwise intelligent people continue to navigate two-ton automobiles while OMG WTF ROTFLing.
"Unclear"? Sommer I am sorry but the head bob at the end of the video is someone dozing off (or staring at his bellybutton).
"Unclear"? Sommer I am sorry but the head bob at the end of the video is someone dozing off (or staring at his bellybutton).
Yea... this should be common sense like not speeding... yielding for pedestrians and bikes... and not using parking spaces for all-day parking.
Common sense people! Don't make us enforce rules that you should be following already.
See, this is what happens when you get rid of the death penalty for minor traffic infractions.
The hangman holds our society together. He is the symbol of the great chastiser. He built this world on punishment and fear. Snuff out fear and see what follows. Sons strike their doddering dads! Young girls show their ankles and bosoms and say rude things about the queen! Anything goes, and they do it openly in the street and frighten the horses!
Bring back fear! In the old days, the executioner kept the common herd in order. When he stood on his gallows, you knew God was in His heaven, all right with the world. The punishment for blaspheming was to be broken on the wheel. First, the fibula, crack. Then the tibia, patella, and femur, crack, crack, crack! Then the corpus, ulna, and radius. CRACK!
Disconnect dem bones Dem dry bones
Disconnect dem bones Dem dry bones
Disconnect dem bones Dem dry bones
Now hear the Word of the Lord!
A good start but only a superficial change. The problem is much more complex then just policy. The problems come from Management on down and need to be tackled at that level and in that order. It's entirely possibly the employee was sleepy because they were working a 10-hour shift or had come from a previous job before their Metro shift. These problems are not as simple as they appear!
I am surprised though that more public employees haven't caught on to the fact that essentially EVERYONE is a supervisor--with cameras in just about every phone, most with video recording--it's impossible to avoid being spotted not doing your job. If I were one of them, I would be extra cautious knowing that... You hear all the time of recording, pictures, tapes, documents, etc. coming back to haunt someone--I keep in mind constantly that EVERYTHING I do can be (and probably is being) recorded by someone or something! I love how people have this half-baked notion that there is such a thing as privacy and anonymity--but I have news for you all--both are figments of your imagination in this day and age of modern technological marvels!
Guess you (and I, and everyone) shouldn't be commenting on DCist at work then...our internet traffic is being recorded!
If you don't hear from me again, it's because I've become a Luddite.
I look at it this way, don't do anything you wouldn't do with your boss standing over your shoulder... A little bit of ranting on a web blog is hardly something I'm worried about losing my job over. Besides, I have a flexible schedule, if I spend 25 minutes looking at DCist, I stay 25 minutes later than I usually would.
Of course with this new policy WMATA will institute additional training for all train and bus drivers. Fortunately, Wizzyliz's School of Common Sense has already developed the complex curriculum for said class: No TALKING or TEXTING EVER!
I think that a similar policy should be instituted for drivers too! I think that if you're caught texting while driving you should lose your license - PERMANENTLY! (And before someone retorts, I can't drive anyway, so no I've never texted while operating a motor vehicle since I've never even operated one!)
Or, better yet, let's just mandate that all motor vehicles be equipped with a device that scrambles the signal of cell phones making incoming or outgoing calls/texts impossible! That'll teach ya! We could also require that in order to start a car, the driver connect a cellular phone that is tied to their identity, that way the phone would be linked ot the car, requiring that it not be used while it provides authentication for the driver to continue using the vehicle. Once the phone is removed, the vehicle stops :-D CRUNCH!
I like the three strikes better. Zero Tolerance takes responsibility away from managers. Their lives become a bit easier when they don't have to make decisions.
OK the driver is waiting to leave a station or staging area for a bus. Can they use the phone there?
Does Metro have telephone operators who field emergency calls from family members and who can contact an operator?
Other municipalities forbid drivers to even have a cell phone on their person.
Can't they just install those cellphone jammers you can get for $60 off the internet? I know the FCC says they're illegal, but if WMATA can ignore NTSB recommendations to upgrade their cars, they can ignore the FCC.
Perhaps, but then would I be able to use MY cell phone?
Maybe if you were on the other end of the train. They should make the Metro caboose the anything-goes car: cellphones, iPods, stinkiness, spilled drinks and nasty food, fellatio.
I see. A rolling Crew Club, of sorts.
Add Marion Barry with a stand-up routine and I'm on that car.
And here I thought the "zero tolerance" for cell phone use applied to RIDERS.
Nuts.
That's what I was hoping too...bummed.
as a driver myself, there is no telling what a driver is reading. when a driver work the board they donot know the route that they are driver if they have not driven it before. they give us a copy of the route or the changes on the route, if we don't resd the route we do not know where we are going. weread at night, in the day, in the rain, or storms.if you want to get to your destination, we have got to know were we are going.the companies gives us lots of paper work while driving, they don't tell the public that, the drivr will always take the fall.