THUNDER BAY – A Greyhound bus driver has been fired after a Kenora man caught him on video texting while driving across Northwestern Ontario.
The video taken June 3 shows the bus operator driving through rain and construction zones with oncoming traffic as he texts with both hands on multiple occasions.
Kenora's Bronson Carver shot the video on his phone. When the bus stops in Thunder Bay, Carver confronts the driver who apologizes, saying he was "busy." According to Greyhound’s communications, the complaint led to the driver’s dismissal.
“The safety of our customers is the cornerstone of our business and we have a zero tolerance policy with regard to drivers using mobile devices at any time while driving,” Greyhound spokeswoman, Lanesha Gipson said in a written statement.
“We take incidents such as this very seriously. The driver is no longer employed with the company.”
Carver doubts Greyhound would have taken any action if he hadn't complained persistently.
He called the company two days after the incident but he received only a form letter in response.
"If I'd just let it go, that would have been the end of it," he said.
"This would have never gotten out, that guy would have kept driving the bus and everything. So I got linked from (Thunder Bay) to Dallas back to here and had actual correspondence with people that mattered. And that was weeks after it happened."
Carver insists he has no intention of embarrassing the driver or the company but wants to raise consciousness about distracted driving.
"I'm not sure if it's my place to say whether he deserves his job or not. Obviously, I don't work for Greyhound. Tha'ts their decision to make. To me it's more about safety in general, making sure people are aware of texing while driving," he says.
"I don't think a lot people think it will ever happen to them but I think people should always be aware of what's going on when you're in a vehicle.
"Even if someone who's driving is a former Nascar driver or something -- the best driver you could have -- if they're looking down that someone could hit them or something else could happen."
