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Last Wednesday morning a 22-year-old Seth Kahn was struck and killed by a bus while crossing the street at West 53rd Street and 9th Avenue. Area residents noted that the intersection was dangerous, one being hit there just two months ago. Now the Daily News reports on the bus driver's history.
Allegedly the 39-year-old NYC Transit driver Jeremy Philhower "was suspended weeks before the accident and the agency had begun disciplinary proceedings to fire him." While investigators don't believe he was using his phone at the time of the accident, they do say that he often used it "to post disparaging comments about his passengers to Facebook while on duty." Instead of being let go, however, he was simply sent to driver safety and customer service training courses. His first day back on the job was last Wednesday.
Philhower's family say he is distraught, but at Kahn's funeral yesterday the victim's friends and family declared: "he should have never been allowed to drive people around. It's not right. I can't believe a bus driver would be updating Facebook when he's supposed to be giving all his attention to driving. It's so outrageous."
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During that one-day crackdown recently I saw a school bus driver texting while driving down Flatbush Ave. This is way too common.
"to post disparaging comments about his passengers to Facebook while on duty."
So he's both dangerous & unprofessional. In this job market why you'd employ someone like that I have no idea. There's plenty of qualified people out there in need of jobs who are able to not act like a 12 year old while holding people's lives in their hands. Really pathetic.
Rest assured you can thank the MTA union for his continued employment. You don't have to be competent, you just have to be a member of the union!
I will never ever understand these people who think they can drive a car (or any vehicle for that matter)while reading a book, or texting. Now some poor 22 year old kid is dead. At 22 your life is just starting! I can't imagine what his parents must be going through....
I see all the saints have come out to post a comment on the story.
i'm posting this while landing a plane into LGA. big whoop! wanna fight about it?
"Way to go! Blaming the bus driver before you even know the whole story."
Oh, but I was right on the nose.
Texting while driving a bus? Putting dozens of people's lives in jeopardy, and he wasn't fired, wasn't even suspended?
He must have a good union or something ...
Transit Workers Union. Ruthless and fairly powerful.
MTA has quite an impressive collection of employees.
idiots.
I take a bus from a Metro North station to a park and ride lot. The drivers frequently text, answer their cellphones, and write down the number of riders on a sheet of paper while driving. I think I may finally complain.
I noticed a lot of bus drivers do the same thing. More so when they're stopped at a red light.
Can they fire him now?
what a turd.
no one cares what the driver had for breakfast or anything about him for that matter! (people post the most idiotic things on those sites.) people should wake up and realize that no one is reading their stupid facebook page and don't care about what meaningless lives they lead.
Yep, let me guess: this guy's union was probably on it faster than the press or even the cops for that matter. The same union that probably insists he's guilty desite his recent history and the fact that there numerous riders (read: witnesses).
I had this one MTA driver who pulled his bus into my crosswalk while I was trying to get across the street. As I motioned to him that the light was mine (no middle finger involved, promise!!) he started screaming "Stop acting tough you fucking ass hole get the fuck out of here!" Scary. Are these guys all nuts?