It seems everyone who rides the bus has a story of a less than safe driver. Yet, VIA ridership is at all time high. So are VIA bus operators safe drivers?
"Our bus operators that are out on the road everyday are doing a good job," said VIA spokesperson Priscilla Ingle.
Billy Jo Hummel disputes that claim. She was injured last year when a VIA bus ran into the back of her S.U.V.
“It felt like a bomb or an explosion had gone off, because there was breaking glass. There were things flying. The air bags just popped," said Hummel.
At the time of impact, the bus driver, Adrian Perez, was texting.
"How could he? How irresponsible to endanger the lives of not only me but the handicap people on the bus?,” said Hummel.
"Unfortunately, we had a situation where a bus driver was texting while driving, and we took action,” said Ingle.
Perez was fired.
Ingle said whenever its drivers are responsible for a crash; it holds them accountable through a point system.
For every preventable accident, a driver loses points. The more severe the accident, the more points a driver loses. If a driver loses too many points, he or she loses their job.
The point system is, in part, why VIA said its accident rate is so low.
"The rate of accidents is really minimal when you look at the picture overall," said Ingle.
However when you look at other Texas cities, it's not that minimal. In the past two years, records show VIA drivers have been responsible for an average of nearly 200 accidents a year. That's nearly twice as many accidents per mile driven as city bus drivers in Dallas were responsible for and more than twice as many as Houston bus drivers were responsible for.
However, out of the nearly 900 full-time VIA drivers, only two were fired last year for having too many accidents.
Additionally, the I-Team found VIA drivers were involved last year in more than a thousand accidents. VIA said nearly 80% of those accidents its drivers were not responsible for.
Seven-year old Chryshelle Thompson was rushed to the hospital with bruises and cuts last year after her mother said a VIA bus driver took a turn too wide in their East side neighborhood clipping her daughter who she said was on the sidewalk.
"It scared me to death," said Thompson’s mother, Denise Thompson. "The whole bus just hit her and knocked her off."
The bus driver who hit Thompson did not lose a single point from her record, because the accident was ruled non-preventable.
Thompson’s mother said she believes the bus driver who hit her daughter could have prevented the accident. VIA said its investigation proved otherwise.
According to VIA's manual, even an accident involving a "minimal degree of preventability by an employee" should be considered preventable.
The I-Team found one VIA bus driver to have been involved in 15 accidents in two years, yet; only two of her accidents were ruled preventable.
When it comes to determining whether an accident is preventable, VIA said it looks at many different factors before its internal board makes a ruling.
Much like VIA, the bus operations in Dallas and Houston make the distinction between preventable and non-preventable accidents.
When adding up all accidents - preventable and non-preventable – records show VIA drivers have been involved in more than twice as many accidents per mile driven as Dallas and Houston bus drivers.
Despite these numbers, VIA insists its drivers are safe.
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