OC Transpo driver jailed for drinking on job

An Ottawa public transit driverhas been sentenced to jail timefor impaired driving after hittinga concrete barrier and being found with cans of Mott's caesar and Budweiser while driving passengers last year.

An agreed statement of facts negotiated as part of a plea agreement through his lawyer Paolo Giancaterino details how the man was caught drinking on the job after a dispatcher became suspicious.

In giving her sentence on July 25, Justice Heather Perkins-McVey told the driver hehad "breached the trust of the public" and anyone who takes public transit would be "shocked" to learn about his actions.

According to court documents, the man began his shift shortly after 1 p.m. on June 12, 2023.

That afternoon he drove OC Transpo bus 6406 on routes 87,86, 75 and 88, totallingaround 81 kilometres in service and 34 kilometres out of service.

Around 5:50 p.m., he was pulling out of a bus parking lot off St. Laurent Boulevard and failed to fully make a left turn. Therear-left wheel hit a concrete barrier, forcing him to reverse the bus and take a wider turn to complete it. He then continued driving his route.

Because he was required to speak over a radio with dispatchers, someone at OC Transpo's operations control centre noted the driver sounded impaired and told authorities.

Empty and unopened cans found on bus

The court documents say that around 6:56 p.m., the bus was intercepted by an OC Transospecial constable aroundBaseline station.

At the time, the bus was filled with passengers some of them underage16.

The driver was spoken to by authorities outside the bus anddenied drinking, but he failed initial roadside testingand was off balance as he walked.

Ottawa police werecalled to use an approved screening device to test the driver's blood alcohol level, which the driver failed.

Later, asample taken hours after his arrest showed he was registering 345 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitresof blood, or nearlyfour times the threshold for laying a criminal charge.

The officer who arrived on the scene said she smelled alcohol on the driver's breath and that his eyes were bloodshot and glossy.

The driver was arrested and police searchedthe bus. Officersfound a lunch bag in the driver's area with two unopened cans of Budweiser beer and one empty Mott's caesar can. Another Mott's was unopened in the cup holder of the driver's seat.

In July, the driver was sentenced on charges related to his impaired driving and given 88 days in jail with an additional 60 days to be served concurrently, or at the same time.

His licence was suspended and it is likely he will not be able to drive professionally again.The bus driver, who's now in his early 40s, had been on the job since 2015.

Duane Duquette, Ottawa's chief transit safety officer, said in a statement the city co-operated with police during the investigation.

"City of Ottawa employees are responsible for conducting themselves in a safe and lawful manner while at work," he said.

"Any allegation of impairment in the workplace is taken very seriously and is investigated in accordance with applicable City policies and procedures."