Bus Driver Caught on Tape Reading Kindle While Driving

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

I'm not, in anyway, disparaging the definition - only saying what I always think/thought the word means; and perhaps more in context of abortion. I am, obviously mistaken in the main definitions.

I wasn't trying to put you down; I just didn't want you to have to take our word for the seventh definition. I'm sorry my intent wasn't clear.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by suecsi

...Sometimes this need to be 'always available' is pushed too far...

Only sometimes? I've been taken to task, even ridiculed, for my habit of keeping my cell phone turned off until I'm ready to use it (I don't even give that number out except to a handful of close friends). I even had an employer demand I keep it turned on until I asked if he was going to pay my cell phone bill (that stopped that nonsense). I'm about to yank my landline because of unsolicited calls, mostly political and surveys (no, the Do-Not-Call list hasn't been working) interrupting whatever it is I'm doing at the time. I quit giving that number out in an attempt to curb the number of calls but it has only slightly reduced them.

[mrscoach]

Forms of terminate, like termination, usually deal with ending something, such as a job or even a computer program. It is also the base for exterminate, which we all know gets said a lot by the Daleks on Dr. Who.

It doesn't even mean something ends early, it also means the outcome or result of something.

I hope the bus driver was terminated from his job, not terminated permanently.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

Forms of terminate, like termination, usually deal with ending something, such as a job or even a computer program. It is also the base for exterminate, which we all know gets said a lot by the Daleks on Dr. Who.

It doesn't even mean something ends early, it also means the outcome or result of something.

I hope the bus driver was terminated from his job, not terminated permanently.

that was my interpretation ....

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

You can see where this is going. Lahcen Qouchbane (the bus driver) will hire a lawyer with a JD from a correspondence school....

Yeah, I don't think so.

Last I checked, if you get popped for speeding, the judge is not going to void your ticket because you claim other motorists were also speeding. Go ahead, test my theory.

Also, while it does sound like the city may be able to crack down a bit, chances are that if all they get is one person verbally reporting a distracted bus driver and there isn't enough evidence, the driver will be hard to fire (union issues, possible discrimination lawsuits etc). In this case, they've got the driver dead to rights.

Sounds like a good reason to buy a tiny video camera if you live in the PNW.

[Fat Abe]

Kali, it's easy enough to pin anything on anyone. If this were a police department matter, an Internal Affairs investigator would be put on the case to shadow any employee reported to be in violation of city or state policy. Thus, Tri-Met could theoretically verify cell phone usage or game playing by other bus drivers, just by placing an undercover investigator on the vehicle. Eventually the violator would be caught red-handed doing his/her number. I'd say the violators were habitual offenders. (In fact, don't most cell phone companies keep a record of calls? That's hard evidence to me.)

Anyway, people have been sentenced on felony charges with nothing more than eyewitness testimony. If the credibility of the witness cannot be impugned, then why would Tri-Met necessarily need a smoking gun (photo or videotape) as evidence?

[Sparrow]

Tape?

[opitzs]

I always read when driving, for two perfectly good reasons:
1. You are reading a (hopefully) good book
2. You miss all those pesky red lights and arrive faster

[GeoffC]

:shudders: