How fast can a Hopelink driver go before they get fired?
Jul 8, 2019, 6:01 PM | Updated: 8:19 pm
Can a driver employed by Hopelink, company contracted by King County Metro, get fired for speeding? That was the question one KIRO Radio listener had when they took a video of a Ride2 van moving over 85 miles an hour on SR 509 headed toward Burien.
“We got a listener send us an e-mail a couple weeks back that was pretty disturbing,” KIRO Radio traffic reporter Chris Sullivan told The Candy, Mike and Todd Show. “This listener was pacing this van as it went southbound on Highway 509, and this Ride2 van was going 85 to 90 miles an hour consistently, just busting down the road.”
Sullivan reached out to King County to see if it has any regulations regarding its Ride2 vehicles, and whether this particular driver stood to keep his job after being caught in the act.
The listener was able to forward the van’s number and information on to the powers that be, who subsequently applied a strike to the driver’s record. It’s not until a second offense, though, that a driver can be fired.
“There’s just no excuse for going 85 or 90 miles an hour in a city, county, or community-run transit van at this point,” Sullivan noted. “We’re lucky we got this video and were able to identify the driver, and this driver has been spoken to, but yeah, it’ll take another violation of the rules to actually get this person terminated.”
Listen to The Candy, Mike, and Todd Show weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.