Muni Bus Drivers Not Keeping Passengers Safe

May 8 - KGO (KGO) -- The ABC7 I-Team is investigating crime on city buses and complaints that drivers are failing to keep passengers safe. It's part of an ongoing investigation into San Francisco's Muni system.

It's been five months since we filed our first public records request to find out which drivers get the most complaints from passengers. We've received more than a thousand pages of documents, and now, a very interesting surveillance tape.

Driver: "Step in please."

Seventy-two-year-old Joy Duffy boards the 45-line.

At the next stop, the doors open and two men push against the crowd. That's when Duffy says she sees them picking people's pockets.

Joy Duffy: "Check your purses folks."

One of the suspects throws up his hands and gets off the bus.

Joy Duffy: "Sir, there was possible pickpockets, two of them."

Driver: "Okay."

Joy Duffy: "And they just got off the bus and went on the other bus going in that direction."

When Duffy tries to give a description to the bus driver, he seems uninterested.

Driver: "Please step into the bus ma'am."

Joy Duffy: "And the other one was very--"

Driver: "Please step into the bus and hold onto this bar."

Joy Duffy: "I'll call Muni myself."

Joy Duffy: "I was just livid because of his attitude and his inability to stop somebody else from having this happen to them."

The driver finally does call Muni's central control to report pickpockets working the line. Then, Joy Duffy realizes her wallet's been stolen.

Joy Duffy: "He got my wallet. I thought he got somebody else's, but he got mine."

Driver: "I can call that in."

But when the bus reaches the end of the line, Duffy finds out that no one has called the police -- not the driver, and not Muni central control.

Joy Duffy: "Did they call them?"

Driver: "They won't call the police."

Joy Duffy: "Will they catch them?"

Driver: "These guys, they're professionals."

Joy Duffy: "I don't care."

Driver: "They've been working this line for years."

The bus driver in this case -- Robert Parks -- declined to appear on camera but he sent the I-Team an e-mail saying, "contact was made with central control with her information via the radio on the bus."

But it appears Parks failed to take three crucial steps from the Muni driver's handbook. He didn't obtain "a complete description" of the suspects, didn't obtain the names and addresses of all victims and witnesses, and didn't set off the bus' emergency strobe lights.

ABC7's Dan Noyes: "What troubles you the most about what happened?"

Joy Duffy: "His lack of interest in a theft."

Public documents show that Parks is part of an elite group -- the 25 bus drivers with the most passenger complaints.

Parks has had 43 over the last three years, for everything from swearing at passengers to dangerous driving.

One complaint came from an emergency worker who says she "was on the street directing traffic for an ambulance." She motioned for the operator "to stop but he kept going, almost hitting" her.

Another complaint says, "look at this individual's behavior before something awful happens."

Brian Vanderzanden, assaulted on Muni: "I still have pins and needles all through this portion of my face."

Brian Vanderzanden was badly beaten aboard the 45-line with Parks behind the wheel. Vanderzanden spotted some teens vandalizing the bus. He whipped out his cell phone to take pictures, but one of them attacked.

Brian Vanderzanden: "So his friend came in from the left hand side and just immediately punched me in the left eye. And that was sort of a searing pain and sort of crippled me."

Vanderzanden suffered a broken eye socket, permanent nerve damage, a broken nose and two chipped teeth.

After three reconstructive surgeries, and more than $70,000 dollars in medical bills, Vanderzanden says he's suing Muni over the driver's poor response.

Brian Cassidy, witness: "It was a very, very brutal beating going on in front of me."

It was especially disturbing for witness Brian Cassidy that Robert Parks kept driving for three city blocks, as the attack continued and as passengers panicked, trying to escape the fight.

Brian Cassidy: "I was surprised that he didn't pull over the bus any sooner, particularly as this guy was getting beat up."

Parks writes: "I was unaware of the assault until after the bus was stopped at the 4th and Market bus zone ... In situations where I was aware of an assault ... I have stopped the bus."

Parks adds, "Please note that Muni will deny driver compensation if the driver becomes involved in a situation while out of the driver's seat."

Muni boss Nat Ford refused to be interviewed, and in a written statement, he declined to address Parks' record saying: "I am not at liberty to discuss specific personnel matters."

Ford says he's reviewing the drivers with the most passenger complaints and found they often have bad attendance and accident histories as well.

Matt Baume, blogger, SFist.com: "It's the one sure thing that will always get a lot of comments from people. People love to talk about Muni."

Problems on Muni busses have become fodder for local blogs, such as SFist. Matt Baume posts cell phone videos of drivers behaving badly, such as one where a driver leaves his bus full of passengers idling in the street for at least six minutes, while he gets a cup of coffee and a sandwich.

Or one where a Muni driver takes a female friend for a ride. She stands at the back of his seat for the entire route.

Matt Baume: "Well Muni's not going to step up and set these standards for behavior. It's up to the people who actually use Muni to do that, to come in and say, 'Alright, well we expect more. We want Muni to be better than it is.'"

We're watching and we hope you will too. If you have your own cell phone video of bus drivers behaving badly, we'd like to see it. Send us an e-mail or call 1-888-40-I-TEAM.

BLOG: Dan Noyes has blogged about this story including posting e-mails from Muni's chief and providing a little background. Read his bog here.

PREVIOUS REPORTS:

>> I-Team Back In Court Over Bus Driver Records (3/15)

>> I-Team Sues For Access To Muni Records (2/14)

>> Bus Drivers Try To Block Records Access (1/19)

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