Dozens of people were hurt when one Boston tram collided with another, after which the driver admitted to police that he'd failed to see the stationary tram because he was texting his girlfriend.I'm actually a little shocked that the union isn't circling the wagons around this guy. But I'm sure that sense will ultimately prevail, meaning that the union will strike to save this guy's sorry butt.
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There will have to be a formal investigation, which will take a month or two, but the driver failed to turn up to a meeting on Sunday and will certainly face the sack if it turns out he was texting while driving - the practice is, unsurprisingly, banned. Even his union seems to have deserted him: "This was an individual act by an individual who does not represent the attitudes or the professional conduct of all or most MBTA workers."
Or maybe I'm thinking of the school system.
3 comments:
Public employees can't strike and if they could, they couldn't over a termination.
Unions have a fiduciary obligation to protect their members. If they don't, they can get sued. It doesn't mean that they have to get his job back, but they do have to make a reasonable effort to do so. Sometimes, that is in the form of getting termination changed to a resignation without rehire and without any reference.
It's that whole law thing.
Cell phone use and texting are on the same level of negligent behavior as drunken driving. But the longer term solution to this problem may exist in the technology itself.
Here's my proposal. Since phones now have cameras, GPS, games, video players, etc. all built in, let's use firmware programming to limit use. Cell phones would track their location using GPS. If they were moving faster than 5 MPH, they would automatically be disabled except for 911 calls.
"But about when you're a passenger!", people will wail. Hey too bad. If you're a passenger, talk to the driver. He doesn't want to drive listening to you yammer to someone else. If you're a passenger on a plane, bus, or train, I can promise you none of us want to listen to half of a conversation. Bring a book.
It's for the children. Really.
In San Francisco, the MUNI transit-union would cover for him and he'd get a two- or three-week suspension/vacation.
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