Page Nav

HIDE

Pages

Classic Header

{fbt_classic_header}

Breaking News:

latest

Detroit bus driver dies from coronavirus days after posting angry video about a passenger who refused to cover her mouth while coughing on his route

A Detroit bus driver who had expressed anger on Facebook about a coughing passenger has died from COVID-19, officials said Thursday. Jas...

A Detroit bus driver who had expressed anger on Facebook about a coughing passenger has died from COVID-19, officials said Thursday.
Jason Hargrove felt ill about four days after posting a passionate video on social media on March 21. He died Wednesday, said Glenn Tolbert, the head of the drivers union.
Hargrove posted a profanity-laced video complaining about a woman whom he said had repeatedly coughed while on his bus. 

Pictured: Jason Hargrove, who died this week from coronavirus, who uploaded a video to social media, expressing his anger over a woman who didn't cover her mouth while coughing on his bus in Detroit
Pictured: Jason Hargrove, who died this week from coronavirus, who uploaded a video to social media, expressing his anger over a woman who didn't cover her mouth while coughing on his bus in Detroit 

Pictured: The DDOT Bus line in Detroit, Michigan, which has makeshift separation barriers inside the car to keep the elderly from potentially catching Coronavirus (Covid-19) from others on March 24, 2020
Pictured: The DDOT Bus line in Detroit, Michigan, which has makeshift separation barriers inside the car to keep the elderly from potentially catching Coronavirus (Covid-19) from others on March 24, 2020
The coronavirus can spread through coughs. The woman was not in the video.
Hargrove said drivers are 'public workers doing our job, trying to make an honest living, take care of our families.'
'For you to get on the bus ... and cough several times without covering up your mouth and you know (we're) in the middle of a pandemic - that lets me know that some folks don't care,' Hargrove said. '[They] utterly don't give a f**k.'
The seven-minute video is laced with expletives as Hargrove, who was clearly upset by the incident, tried to get his point across. 
'Excuse my language, but that's how I feel right about now,' he said. 
'For a grown a** person. In her 50s or early 60s to stand on the f*****g bus and cough, four or five times, without covering up your mouth and you know we in the midst of a motherf******g crisis with this coronavirus, I am p****d the f**k off.'
A bus driver for the Detroit, Michigan city bus line DDOT poses for a portrait wearing a protective mask and gloves for protection in Detroit, Michigan, on March 24, 2020, during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Hargrove, not pictured, said drivers are 'public workers doing our job, trying to make an honest living, take care of our families'
A bus driver for the Detroit, Michigan city bus line DDOT poses for a portrait wearing a protective mask and gloves for protection in Detroit, Michigan, on March 24, 2020, during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Hargrove, not pictured, said drivers are 'public workers doing our job, trying to make an honest living, take care of our families'
'I ain't blaming nobody but the woman that did that sh**t, I ain't putting the fault on nobody else,' he added. 
'For us to get through this man y'all need to take this sh*t serious. There's folks dying from this.'
Detroit city promised drivers more routine cleaning and advised them to enter and exit from the rear door only as a means of avoiding contaminated surfaces. They also eliminated fares so they did not have to have direct contact with passengers. 
The changes happened on March 17, a day after drivers declined to work as a protest against conditions. 
'At some point in time, we've got to draw the line and say enough is enough. I feel violated,' Hargrove said. 
'I’m trying to be the professional, they want me to be and I kept my mouth closed, but it’s at some point in time where you got to draw the line and say enough is enough. 
'I feel violated; I feel violated for the folks that were on the bus when this happened. There was about eight or nine people on the bus that stood there as she coughed and never covered up her mouth.'    
Mayor Mike Duggan advised people in the city to watch Hargrove's video. 
'Everybody in Detroit and everybody in America should watch [Hargrove's Facebook live video]. 
'Because he was infected before we closed the front doors and he tells the story of a passenger getting on the bus and coughing on him, and, some of his language is graphic, but I don’t know how you can watch it and not tear up. 
'He knew his life was being put in jeopardy - even though he was going to work for the citizens of Detroit every day - by somebody who just didn’t care. 
'Somebody who didn’t take this seriously. And now he’s gone,' Duggan said.

No comments