Rome: Atac driver watches movies while driving

A bus driver watches a movie while driving. It would be hard to believe, if it weren’t for the fact that everything was documented by video. It is the morning of October 24, we are in Rome, at the Saxa Rubra station. The Atac 32 bus leaves the terminus at 06:12. One of the passengers immediately notices a strange thing: voices and flickers of a screen come from the driver’s cabin.

What was a suspicion becomes a certainty: the driver, just as he drives in Roman traffic, thinks of watching a movie. The passenger does not hesitate: he takes out his smartphone and begins to film what has happened. Then reporting his considerations in a note: “In the buses of Rome – writes the passenger – it is more and more common to observe that the driver’s seat is sheltered from prying eyes. Thus, neither the driver’s face nor the car number are visible. A useful expedient to avoid recognition in certain cases. How I tell you.”

“This morning the 32 left Saxa Rubra at 6.12 a.m. the driver, from a small screen placed on his far left, while driving, he watched a film – continues the passenger – I filmed several minutes of this show, I I have placed them to make known to the world the Roman shame.” The bus covers a section relating to the northern quadrant of the capital, starting from Saxa Rubra and arriving at Piazza Risorgimento, near Vatican City.

Rome, driver watches movies while driving. Atac: “We are already intervening”

Atac’s immediate response arrives. The video, on the other hand, is unambiguous. “We are already taking action and as in other cases in the past, we will strictly apply the provisions of the regulations. Stopping these behaviors is the first objective we have set ourselves to restore correct value to the service we provide – continues the public transport company Capitoline – These are a few cases that harm the entire category. Most of Atac’s 11,000 employees interpret their role correctly”.