Metro is creating a zero tolerance policy against its employees who use cell phones while operating trains or driving buses after a video surfaced of a driver text messaging.
General Manager John Catoe said Thursday that the transit agency will fire any driver who uses cell phones or other electronic devices. The policy will begin Monday after Metro finalizes the policy’s wording.
Violators previously were allowed three strikes before being kicked out: They were suspended without pay for five days on the first violation, then 10 days, and fired after a third incident.
“We thought the penalty under the policy would be enough,” Catoe said. “With what happened June 5, obviously that was not the case.”
The Metro train operator in that incident was suspended without pay for five days after a rider shot video of him apparently text messaging while operating a Blue Line train in automatic mode. Some expressed outrage he wasn’t disciplined more.
Another rider took video of a train operator who appeared to be sleeping while operating a train automatically. A third shows a bus driver texting.
This marks the second time this year the transit agency has changed its policy. Before March, it allowed five violations before firing drivers. Catoe said the agency decided it needed to tighten its policy again this week in the wake of the recent texting cases. The deadly June 22 crash that killed nine and injured more than 70 people also has renewed the agency’s push for safety.
The train operator involved in that crash apparently was not using a cell phone before her train slammed into another one as investigators found her phone in a knapsack. But two crashes in Boston and Los Angeles have heightened concerns about transit employees using cell phones on the job.
Metro officials could not say how long the agency has had specific policies banning drivers from using cell phones. They could not provide numbers of how many employees have gotten in trouble for using them. “We have thousands of employees and 99 percent of them comply,” Catoe said. “All it takes is one.”
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 that represents Metro’s approximately 2,850 bus drivers and train operators said it does not condone the use of cell phones or other devices while operating Metro vehicles, agreeing that they are a safety hazard.
But President Jackie Jeter said the transit agency should discuss with them their ongoing concerns about malfunctioning communication equipment before issuing a blanket zero tolerance policy.
Under Catoe’s policy, drivers would be allowed to use cell phones or other devices in a “Metro-defined emergency” such as when communication equipment fails.
