TTC subway driver texting on job video prompts investigation

A video shows a TTC worker using his cellphone in one hand while operating the subway with the other

The Toronto Transit Commission is investigating after a video surfaced Friday of a subway driver using a cellphone while operating the vehicle.

The video, posted to YouTube by evanderm, shows an operator holding the phone with the left hand while operating the train with the right.

The train was headed southbound toward the Bloor Station along the Yonge line. It pulls into an above-ground station, stops and then gets back up to speed all while the driver holds the phone.

TTC operators, like everyone else in Ontario, aren't allowed to use cellphones while driving a vehicle, said TTC spokesperson Danny Nicholson to CBC. He also said the TTC is aware of the online video.

This isn't the first time TTC drivers have been caught in the act. Last January, two bus drivers were photographed using phones while driving. One was steering with his forearms to use two hands to text. Both of those drivers were fired and the TTC launched a crackdown. According to a Toronto Star report from last year, the TTC suspended 27 drivers for using phones, listening to iPods and reading newspapers while behind the wheel in the beginning of 2011. All but one got their jobs back.

TTC workers have also been caught speeding and sleeping on the job.

If you think this subway driver is endangering lives, check out what one bus driver was filmed doing in Italy last year.

He talked on the phone in his right hand, messaged with the one in his left and steered the bus with his right elbow and left wrist.