OC Transpo Driver Fired

[Greatwhite]

To be perfectly honest, the video doesn't show anything leading up to the lashing.  We are all just going on what this kid says happened.  For all I know, that Matt guy could have been harassing the bus driver to get a rise out of him.  Why else would the other guy have recorded it?

This kid does lame Youtube videos...  What better way to get publicity than to post a video of a transpo bus driver swearing at him?  Just sayin'...

[freshwaterfun]

Well thing is even in news report the parents told them that there son is mildly autistic that's the issue and the reason the bus driver was acting the way he was was because the autistic guy was repeating something he had learned that day it's kinda like a tick like Tourette syndrome it can't be helped or controlled the young man even told the bus driver he was autistic and couldn't help it. Tbh it's not the first time I've seen a oc transpo bus driver act that way I'm glad it was caught on camera for once

[Nerine]

Bus drivers go through a LOT of stuff every day. Not everyone has the ability to hang on to their tempers. And yes while they shouldn't be driving, maybe that driver had a really bad week at home/work etc. Everyone looses it on someone at some point. Instead of video taping it, why didnt someone step in and stop it right away if they are so concerned? I would have if I was there. Would you? Would you interfere? Especially knowing about the man who was stabbed to death for trying to help someone?

People would rather sit back, laugh at their videos and watch someone get hurt. So this video just shows that people do NOT care. Unless there is someone stepping in to stop it. I didnt watch the video as I will not support the creator of this youtube video. Did he do anything to stop the driver?

[tophoo]

It's true that not everyone can hang on to their tempers. I agree, but as a bus driver and working with the public, he should. If you were at a restaurant and a server lashed out at ya and started dropping f-bombs, would that be ok since the server was having a bad day, or would you complain to the manager?

just saying

[salvini55]

interestingly, Matt closed his YouTube account. Although I disagree with the manner the driver "handled" the situation, I find myself taking his side.

[Nerine]

should and do are two different things. I've seen doctors loose their cool, everyone does it from time to time. not excusing his behaviour, just saying it's wrong of the person to video it and do nothing and everyone has their bad days. maybe he's headed for stress leave and just had to wait? who knows the whole story!

[Stussi613]

I'm no bus driver, and nor am I a perfect angel, but the correct action would have been to pick up the phone on every bus and have one of the OC rent-a-cops waiting at the next stop instead of verbally abusing the guy.  Like it or not, bus drivers are in a public facing position and have a duty to comport themselves in a curteous and professional manner. Everyone has bad days, and we don't know what the young man was doing to provoke this...but the video taped reaction was over the top IMO.  He didn't need to use the level of profanity he did to tell him to cut it out and get off the bus at the next stop.

[freshwaterfun]

well the main factor here as i noticed many of you did not see the interview and news report the young man did not provoke the bus driver the young college student is autistic and his autism is much like Tourette syndrome. The best way to explain it to people that do not know about it is a "itch" that has to be scratched the brain sends signals saying that he has the itch only way to cure it and rid himself of the itch is by acting oddly some people will twitch others will stick there tongue out randomly some say random words for no reason they have no control of how to solve the itch only the brain does.

His itch was he learnt something at school and he was repeating it not too loudly but loud enough for the bus driver to hear its a mental disability but rather then being shunned by society and staying secluded the young man is choosing to actually get a education and expand his knowledge and get a career despite his disability.

I agree 100% someone should of did something and explained the disability to the bus driver to clean up his attitude rather than just recording the incident. During the interview the autistic young man even said that he got off the bus early and actually feared that the bus driver was going to chase him out of the bus and attack him and he even told the bus driver of his disability but by that time the bus driver was already off the handle so to speak with his attitude. This is why when the mayor saw the video he actually made a personal apology to the young man and said there will be a investigation as it made the mayor sick to see that from anyone.

End point we are who we are many of us have medical issues that are hard to explain i myself suffer from many medical problems and am on disability due to it. But in no way shape or form should people with disabilities of any sort be treated like this incident descrimination such as this

you see many young kids with down syndrome and other medical problems that have ticks in them like Tourette syndrome but obviously you would not accept a bus driver screaming at a young child like that same goes with this situation anyways i think ive rambled enough about the subject.

[FocusFin]

Why are people out to ruin oc drivers reputation.

We all do it while driving,not so much holding phone in ear but texting still is an issue

I dont see any videos on youtube of people in cars on the phone.

There's a fundamental difference between an individual texting while driving home from work and a driver texting while transporting 20 or 30 people.

How would you feel if instead of a city bus driver texting, it was your child's bus driver texting or instead of the driver yelling at a young adult he was instead yelling at your 10 year old for acting up.

When people are put into a position of trust or of protecting others they assume a greater responsibility and have to act accordingly.

[Stussi613]

There's a fundamental difference between an individual texting while driving home from work and a driver texting while transporting 20 or 30 people.

How would you feel if instead of a city bus driver texting, it was your child's bus driver texting or instead of the driver yelling at a young adult he was instead yelling at your 10 year old for acting up.

When people are put into a position of trust or of protecting others they assume a greater responsibility and have to act accordingly.

+1

[Severum]

More OC Transpo news.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Singing+driver+silenced+Transpo/5677689/story.html

The singing bus driver was told to stop singing while carrying passengers. You can't please everyone.

[elk]

Well I just heard the union fired the driver.

[bt]

Citizen and Global News are both reporting that as well

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/driver+caught+yelling+passenger+fired+Transpo/5709175/story.html

Doesn't mean it's final though.

(Alain Mercier) wrote that the firing is provisional — the union has the option to grieve the dismissal

[Stussi613]

"Councillor Diane Deans, who chairs the transit commission...also said she'll be proceeding with an effort to review a 2007 city bylaw that forbids recording anything on OC Transpo property without Mercier's written permission, unless the recording is for "personal use." Queale has said that bylaw makes recordings like the damning one in this incident illegal."

Actually, that exact bylaw makes the recording of this incident perfectly legal. Only commercial recording, such as filming a movie or a music video, is illegal on city buses without Mercier's written permission. Nice to know Ms. Deans doesnt even understand the bylaw she wants reviewed, based on the unions incorrect interpretation of the bylaw. 

[Cheebs]

Poor guy, he lost a parent and another family member to cancer in the past year (or something along those lines), and was spat on 2 days prior by another passenger. Misconduct or not, I feel sorry for him.

Yesterday my girlfriend was riding the bus and a handful of highscool kids were staying near the front and making fun of the passengers getting on to their faces. I bet the bus driver was quite afraid to say something because of all this crap going on. I would have punched them in the head myself. My point is I hope that because of this bus drivers don't allow passengers to step all over them even more.

[Stussi613]

Poor guy, he lost a parent and another family member to cancer in the past year (or something along those lines), and was spat on 2 days prior by another passenger. Misconduct or not, I feel sorry for him.

My friend, who is a bus driver, mentioned this to me as well. I think he was spat on the day before, actually, but chose not to take the day off with pay that he would normally have been offered in that situation. I also feel some compassion for him, but not much. I've had bad days too, but I've never  yelled at a customer because of it.

[smalltownfan]

I think he was spat on the day before,

A sign of the new times. I was a bus operator for 22 years, 1977 - 1999, before I went over to the "Dark Side" as my friends like to say. We never encountered incidents like this. A cultural thing for many "new Canadians" is to show displeasure by spitting at the person they are unhappy with. Unfortunately, we now have almost daily occurrences of this disgusting display.
How would you like a big gob in your face? Drivers are concerned about AIDS, HEP C and all of those wonderful other diseases spread by contact with saliva..

Areas where this occurs the most; South Keys, Montreal Road (Vanier), Rideau Centre, Richmond Road and Carling Avenue west of Pinecrest, Somerset west of Lyon and Walkley Road in the Albion area. I know, I read the reports.  But unfortunately the media doesn't (or won't) pick up on this.

I'm glad I'm not driving anymore, I'd probably lay a piece of shaved maple billy across their mouth and get charged for protecting myself.
I did carry one for when I worked nights in some of the ugly parts of town. I got "Chester" from my mother-in-law, the wife of a bus driver 1946-1970. Neither he or I had to ever use it. Nowadays it would be an almost daily thing.

My invitation still stands. If you want to see what my Controllers and their Operators deal with, PM me and I'll invite you to sit in and observe in the TOCC.

Hank

[bt]

And no surprise.... The union is going to argue the dismissal.

http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111115/OTT-bus-union-fighting-firing-111115/20111115/?hub=OttawaHome

To be fair, it is part of the union's job to stand up for their members and try and get the best result for them.

From the sounds of it, they're going to push for a lighter punishment rather than complete forgiveness or to get the driver off completely on some minor technicality.

[Stussi613]

A sign of the new times. I was a bus operator for 22 years, 1977 - 1999, before I went over to the "Dark Side" as my friends like to say. We never encountered incidents like this. A cultural thing for many "new Canadians" is to show displeasure by spitting at the person they are unhappy with. Unfortunately, we now have almost daily occurrences of this disgusting display.
How would you like a big gob in your face? Drivers are concerned about AIDS, HEP C and all of those wonderful other diseases spread by contact with saliva..

Areas where this occurs the most; South Keys, Montreal Road (Vanier), Rideau Centre, Richmond Road and Carling Avenue west of Pinecrest, Somerset west of Lyon and Walkley Road in the Albion area. I know, I read the reports.  But unfortunately the media doesn't (or won't) pick up on this.

I'm glad I'm not driving anymore, I'd probably lay a piece of shaved maple billy across their mouth and get charged for protecting myself.
I did carry one for when I worked nights in some of the ugly parts of town. I got "Chester" from my mother-in-law, the wife of a bus driver 1946-1970. Neither he or I had to ever use it. Nowadays it would be an almost daily thing.

My invitation still stands. If you want to see what my Controllers and their Operators deal with, PM me and I'll invite you to sit in and observe in the TOCC.

Hank

There is little doubt in my mind that today's bus drivers deal with things they have no business dealing with...especially being spit on.  I have a friend who has been a driver for a few years and I've heard the horror stories first hand.  I know I wouldn't be able to restrain myself. My previous post wasn't to say that the things that the driver in question faced weren't difficult for him to deal with, simply to say that even those things aren't justification for his reaction.  I feel bad that he experienced thoe losses in his personal life, and that he was essentially assaulted a few days before.  I also feel that he reacted to the situation, got caught and ultimately had to deal with the consequences.  If it was only the driver and the young man on the bus who knows what would have happened...and the public wouldn't have known about it.

Of course the union is going to fight for the membership. And if you had a bad year and treated a driver in the same manner he treated that young man and they had a video of it...they'd be fighting to get you fired.

[rockgarden]

I used to be a member of the Transit Committee a number of years ago so have had the joy of committee level discussion of some pretty interesting things. Some drivers on some routes at some times of the day have jobs that very few of us would want. Some other routes at other times of the day are pretty decent.  Every driver on every route at any time of the day can tell stories about passengers that they would rather not have met. I've even had the joy of spilling my blood all over the floor of a bus when the driver had to slam on his brakes to avoid a stupid car driver and in the process flung me and my head in the direction of the fare box.  Some passengers tried to help while others complained that they would be late for work and strongly suggested to the driver that he just help me off the bus, report the incident to the call centre and leave me there to wait for medical help.  No joking!

My opinion on the recent YouTube incident.

Definitely the driver lost it (control).
Yes, alternate means of dealing with issue were likely available (central call center being the most obvious).
Extenuating circumstances - probably.
Firing: probably a bit harsh depending on prior record, etc., etc.,
Union response/obligation: Can't very easily condone the behaviour without losing credibility but can/must represent the member in discussion of the punishment.

I can remember once having a committee member discussion (likely coffee break chat during a break in the late night committee meeting) about adding video feed to central call center.  At the time, it was felt that drivers/union wouldn't support (management spying) and public wouldn't support (invasion of privacy) and cost would be an issue. Fast forward a decade or so and likely a lot easier to implement with newer technology but I suspect the objections would be the same despite the possible increase in confrontational behaviours on both sides being reporting in the media in recent years.

Re drivers talking on their phones and texting, etc.  Just got my car back from repair shop. Bumper replaced. My son was rear ended at slow speed by someone with something else on their mind! (I'm being kind!) In the same week, I had to swerve a couple of times at high speed on the Queensway in traffic to avoid being hit by drivers with cell phones held to their ears. You can probably guess how I feel about cell phones and drivers who use them while driving. On that issue, believe me, I feel the same about bus drivers, car drivers and taxi drivers. However, I don't remember the issue being raised when "Breaker 1-9" was a more common distraction. I was a lot younger then .