PORTLAND, Ore. -- In a few weeks it will be illegal for anyone in Oregon to drive and text. TriMet, the metro-area mass transit agency, wants bus, streetcar and train passengers to feel safe knowing that operators are already banned from using their cell phones while on the clock.
TriMet just hasn't enforced the 11-year-old rule. Until now.
Any employee caught texting while driving a bus, MAX train or streetcar will be fired, TriMet spokeswoman Becki Witt said on Friday. But Witt added that the agency will not begin strictly enforcing the crackdown for six weeks - or until all other drivers in the state will face penalties for texting and driving, too.
Lori Miles-Christenson, a 13-year veteran TriMet bus driver, doesn't need a policy orientation to know that her cell phone takes a back seat while she's working. When she gets behind the wheel, she leaves her cell phone behind.
"It takes your eyes and your mind off the road," she said.
Miles-Christenson said she didn't understand how other drivers thought they could text and drive a bus full of people.
"How can you maintain safety for your passengers when your mind isn't on what you are doing?" she said.
The TriMet texting-and-driving crackdown comes after high-profile accidents in other big cities like Los Angeles and Boston.
Last May, 49 people were hospitalized when two street trolleys collided in Boston. One of the trolley conductors was text-messaging with his girlfriend at the time of the collision, federal investigators told the Boston Globe. The Metro Boston Transit Authority fired him and banned trolley drivers from carrying cell phones, according to the newspaper.
Witt said TriMet was "taking a stand" to ensure that nothing like that ever happened in Portland.
"No one cares more about safety more than TriMet," she said.
The new policy informs drivers that they will be fired immediately if caught texting, effective Jan. 1. The policy changed after an investigation by The Oregonian found that hundreds of complaints have been lodged by TriMet passengers about bus drivers who text and drive.
Passengers want to know why their safety should be jeapordized another six weeks. Christopher Smith, who lived in Boston at the time of the trolley crash, thinks TriMet drivers should be fired immediately for texting and driving.
"A lot can happen in six weeks," he said, adding that drivers have people's safety in mind instead of phone calls.
Witt said it would take six weeks to alert bus, streetcar and MAX train drivers of the new policy and its serious consequences. She added that the public need not be concerned.
"I don't think it's a risk to anyone," Witt said. "We are reminding our operators that (texting and driving) is not allowed."
It took Boston's metro transit authority a matter of days, not six weeks, to incorporate a texting crackdown after the trolley accident, The Globe reported.
Miles-Christenson doesn't need a reminder from anyone to know that she should be focused on driving when she's got a bus full of Portlanders behind her. She feels the crackdown is "long overdue."
"Why wasn't this implemented a long time ago? That's my question," she said.
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