Taking public transit places your trust in someone else since you are counting on a driver to get you to where you are going. When the drivers aren’t properly vetted, you can face hazards. A recent accident proves that putting your trust in a public transit system to get around might not be the best idea.
In the accident, a Metro bus driver slammed into a man’s recreational vehicle. The man found out on the scene of the accident that the driver didn’t have a valid license. Her driver’s licenses were suspended at the time of the accident. In fact, she received four citations for that offense prior to becoming a Metro driver.
In response to questioning, Metro officials note that it is possible for their vetting system to miss some suspensions for a month or even longer. Furthermore, it is possible that some driver’s license issues might not even impact the driver’s ability to operate buses. Drunk driving offenses and moving violations were named as two specific causes of driver’s license suspensions that would prevent a person from being employed by Metro.
Federal law states that commercial drivers only have to have an annual license check. This leaves a lot of time in between during which drivers might operate buses and other large vehicles with a suspended driver’s license. This is simply unacceptable but isn’t likely going to be questioned unless someone gets hurt or killed.
In the case of the bus vs. RV accident, nobody was injured. Still, the accident does bring up the point of what a person should do if he or she is hit by a driver with a suspended license. One option in these cases is to seek compensation from the driver and any other entity that might be liable for the crash.
Source: Cincinnati.com, “Metro driver in crash had suspended license,” James Pilcher, Feb. 27, 2017