Following the death of 22-year-old Seth Kahn, who was struck by a city bus on West 53rd and 9th last week, there's some talk about bus drivers texting while on the job. The driver in this particular incident was Jeremy Philhower, who had been suspended for texting and updating his Facebook with disparaging comments about his riders while behind the wheel. Last Wednesday, when he hit Kahn, was his first day back on the job — if NYC Transit concludes that he could have prevented the accident, they could file charges and fire him.
The Daily News reports that "disciplinary actions against bus drivers caught texting or talking on cell phones have soared nearly 60% this year," according to NYCT. 170 drivers have been reprimanded or fired so far, a number the agency says has gone up due to "increased enforcement, including random observations of drivers and investigations sparked by rider complaints."
While it's against the law to talk on your cell phone and text while operating a vehicle... in a jaywalking-friendly city like New York, will pedestrians one day be told they can't text and walk? (A Staten Island teen did fall into an open manhole while she was texting.) How about skateboarding and texting, or biking and texting?
