Photo: Metro Bus Driver On Cell Phone

Another photo has surfaced of a Metro transit employee talking on a cell phone. This time it's a bus driver wheeling her vehicle down Georgia Avenue.

The photo was posted on a local blog called "Unsuck DC Metro" which follows and critiques the transit agency serving D.C. and nearby suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

The contributor, Brian, says he was on an inbound #63 bus on Tuesday morning, when the driver pulled over near the Petworth Metro stop, got out of the bus, and conversed with someone on her cell phone.

Three minutes later, according to Brian, an angry passenger got off the bus and asked the driver to complete her run. One minute later, she boarded the bus and took off, but continued her conversation on the phone "for several hundred feet before ending her call."

That's when Brian snapped a picture with his cell phone. The photo shows a mostly-full bus with a female driver holding a cell phone to her right ear.

A grim-faced General Manager of Metro, John Catoe, expressed embarrassment over the photo. Catoe recently announced a zero-tolerance policy of cell phone and text messaging for vehicle operators. The general manager told reporters, "We have been able to identify the [driver], and we will take the appropriate action", which Catoe said is termination.

In recent weeks, videos and photos have surfaced of Metro operators sleeping, texting, or reading a book while driving trains or buses. Cell phone use is not suspected in the June 22nd Metro rail crash, which claimed nine lives.

A statement from Local 689 of the Amalgamated Transit Union noted that fired drivers have the right to appeal their dismissal, and urged transit managers to work cooperatively with union representatives to establish disciplinary rules.

Most riders FOX 5 spoke with support the transit system's hard line on the issue.

"I don't think there should be a second chance," declared bus commuter Doris Simpkins. "You have that many people on the bus, and you're using a cell phone? Or texting? Fire them on the spot."