Jul 09, 2009
New Metro Policy: Zero Tolerance for Cell Phone Use
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…
First out of the gate to grandstand over the recent news that a Metro operator was suspended without pay for five days after being caught on video sending a text message while driving a Blue Line train: Kwame Brown (D-At large)! “I am shocked that an operator would be callous enough to risk the safety of passengers by texting on a cell phone,” Brown said in a statement today. “Metro didn’t go far enough in…
Jul 07, 2009
Metro Operator Suspended for Texting Thanks to Video
WJLA/ABC7 reports that an unidentified Metrorail operator was suspended for five days without pay after a Metro rider posted a YouTube video of the driver that appears to show him using a cell phone to send an SMS while operating a Blue Line train. You can’t specifically tell what the operator is doing in the grainy cell phone video — he’s just seen looking down at something in his hands — but it was…