Yes, the bus driver was focused ... on an apparently compelling video streaming from his smartphone.
That was the way that one passenger on a recent New York City metro day trip saw things. And now, in the wake of that passenger's recording of the driver, that is exactly the way that a global audience sees the now high-profile matter, too. The passenger's tape, as it is often termed these days in the online world, has "gone viral."
And the driver is looking to work with another company.
Numerous national media outlets have paid prominent attention to Barry Fisk's narrative and story. Fisk and his wife were recently in New York on vacation from Britain, and were en route one morning to a local shopping mall, hoping to relax on a bus trip they had booked through a tour company.
Relax is not the operative word for describing their experience or that of other passengers who took notice of the driver's behavior. Fisk estimates that the driver had his head down and eyes decidedly off the road for "probably 15 minutes, maybe more" of a 50-mile trip. And he engaged in the same behavior when the bus returned from the mall.
Moreover, it was raining on the day of the trip, and the bus was reportedly full.
Fisk says the driver was also reading and answering texts while driving, and at one point even took both his hands off the wheel to charge his phone.
Sadly, is it any wonder that we routinely hear tragic tales of horrific vehicle mishaps and attendant human suffering - sometimes fatal - that result directly from almost unbelievable acts of negligence?
It is, unsurprisingly, illegal for any motorist in New York to engage in behind-the-wheel listening.
Laws need teeth, though. Distracted drivers willing to break the law are certainly not in short supply.
And that includes licensed commercial drivers on packed buses.
