Second TTC staffer caught napping
By DON PEAT and CHRIS DOUCETTE, QMI Agency
TTC workers say job's a yawn
TTC ticket collector snapped snoozing in pic
TTC union boss upset with public's response
What should happen to workers caught sleeping?
TORONTO - The Sleepy Way: Part Two.
For the second time in as many days, a snapshot has surfaced of yet another TTC staffer apparently sleeping on the job.
“The guy was just completely oblivious to his surroundings,” Scott Dagostino said Friday of the ticket collector he captured with his camera phone at King station.
The freelance writer was on his way home around 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 12 when he spotted the TTC worker resting comfortably “in the classic catnap position.”
Dagostino said he decided to take the photo on “a lark” after watching other riders pass through the turnstile behind him “giggling and laughing” at the man.
Remarkably, Dagostino’s photo came to light one day after another rider’s cellphone picture of a ticket collector sawing logs at a TTC station in Scarborough went viral online and then was plastered in the media, raising the ire of Toronto transit users.
The ensuing controversy likely won’t be put to bed any time soon now that a second TTC staffer has been caught power-napping.
After the first photo surfaced, tough-talking transit union boss Bob Kinnear shot back Friday saying members of the public should have knocked on the glass to make sure a supposedly slumbering TTC employee was okay.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 president slammed the iPhone-toting rider who snapped the picture at McCowan Station and the TTC riders who walked by laughing at the conked-out collector as uncaring.
“It is very discouraging that the picture taker and, apparently, other customers, made no attempt to determine if there was anything wrong with this TTC employee,” Kinnear stated. “A simple knock on the glass might have determined if the collector was, in fact, asleep, or whether he was unconscious as a result of some medical problem.
“The reports that passengers were laughing at him as they passed by the booth makes this even more disturbing,” Kinnear stated, adding the union won’t make any comment until the TTC has conducted its investigation.
Both of the men who took the photos couldn’t help but laugh at the union’s take on their handiwork.
“I think it’s hilarious,” Dagostino said of Kinnear’s response. “Any grown adult can tell the difference between somebody who is in medical distress versus somebody who is taking a nap.”
Jason Weiler, who snapped the McCowan pic, agreed.
“That’s just crazy,” he said. “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out he was sleeping.”
Wieler took the photo Jan. 9 and decided to post it online Thursday through his Twitter account along with the caption, “Yup, love how my TTC dollars R being spent ... (sic)”
Weiler told the Sun he didn’t post the photo on the Internet for fame. He was just venting about the TTC fare hike.
“It is what it is,” Wieler said. “Obviously it struck a chord with people.”
Both Weiler and Dagostino said they hope the collectors don’t lose their jobs in the aftermath.
Neither of the TTC staffers have been named publicly.
Union spokesman Bill Reno said all the media attention Friday was troubling.
“We got more calls on this than when the driver was shot,” he said. “It’s quite amazing.”
A source at the TTC told Sun columnist Joe Warmington the McCowan station collector is a “very nice man.”
The same source said at most, he would get a few days suspension and it would be forgotten about.
TTC chairman Adam Giambrone did not return an interview request Friday.
don.peat@sunmedia.ca
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