What problems are there with the metro bus drivers?
Subway drivers are hard to find and hard to stop. They break the rules. Sometimes they hurt people.
The Enquirer is very cautious in using unnamed sources in the stories we publish.
In fact, we only use them as a last resort when we believe that the information they provide is critical to the public and we cannot otherwise confirm their knowledge.
However, we rely on informants who wish to remain anonymous to alert us to news.
You can help Calling all observers: How to submit a news tip to Cincinnati.com and The Enquirer
This is where we started today’s Metro story.
Shortly after retired teacher Beverly Kinney was struck and killed by a Metro bus in January, a former Metro employee wrote to us saying there was more to the story.
Metro knows when the state of Ohio will suspend one of its drivers’ licenses or give them a traffic violation, the former employee said. Metro knows which drivers are involved in preventable accidents while on the job. Metro knows when they are absent from work, missing trips, arriving late or early at bus stops. Metro knows it’s hard to retain them and why.
Metro regularly presents all this information and more to its board, the source said. And as a publicly funded agency, it must release the data upon request for public records.
So we put out a request, and Metro, to their credit, complied. We made 15 requests, most with multiple questions, and got back almost everything we wanted. We did the same with local police departments to get reports of bus crashes that injured pedestrians. Surprisingly, the federal government’s data – on Metro crashes over the past decade – was the easiest to get, embedded in a giant Excel spreadsheet on a website maintained by a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Metro struggles with safety and service. Critics claim they are hiring “at-risk” bus drivers
Nevertheless, the help of the former Metro employee was crucial. He told us which documents existed and what they were called – important because public authorities often say that they will not create files in response to a request, but will only release those that already exist.
The former employee also named others who had left Metro and might be willing to talk about it. In the end, only one of about a dozen we contacted was willing to be quoted by name. Caprice Jones called Metro “terrible” and said success at Metro was determined by friendships and favoritism rather than job performance. “I’m not upset,” said the former executive assistant, 45, admitting she filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the transit agency. “I just want them to be held accountable.”
The article, which begins on today’s front page, includes several quotes from Jones, as well as from Metro management, the board and the union, and from people who have been harmed by Metro buses.
The informant’s voice is only present in the data underlying our findings.
Patricia Gallagher Newberry is the business and quality of life watchdog reporter for the team that covers government, politics and business.
