Jan 5, 2009 8:00 pm US/Eastern
Transport Company Owner Defends Bus Driver
Outstanding Transport's Curcio Says His Dealings With Embattled Walter Gibbs Jr. Have Been By The Book
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Outstanding Transport President Charles Curcio, spoke exclusively with CBS 2 HD about the disturbing bus ordeal in which a mentally disabled Harlem man was left alone overnight locked in to his seat.
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This is the Oustanding Transport bus that 22-year-old Ed Rivera, who has cerebral palsy, spent 19 hours on after the driver forgot about him on New Year's Eve.
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A 22-year-old man with cerebral palsy who was missing since Wednesday afternoon has been found alive. He spent the entire night locked on a bus in freezing temperatures. Edwin Rivera was taken to Brookdale Hospital today and is in stable condition.
CBS
Ed Wynn Rivera was released from a hospital Monday, five days after he was left on a bus in the freezing cold. Now questions are popping up about the bus driver's past.
The owner of the bus company told CBS 2 HD in an exclusive interview why the bus driver still has a job.
Charles Curcio, the owner of Outstanding Transport, explained why he is standing by Walter Gibbs Jr., the driver of the bus Rivera was left to freeze on, though it has been learned Gibbs has been arrested 28 times, had his license suspended 12 times and had it revoked one time in 1988 after being in an accident without insurance. Curcio said there is another side to Gibbs' past driving record.
"There are suspensions, for scofflaw, for tickets, unpaid tickets," Curcio said.
What about the 28 arrests?
"In his application, it says that he was not convicted of any felonies," Curcio said. "And it's on the application. We printed him. It goes to Albany and they come back and they tell us whether he should drive or not."
Curcio is still waiting to hear from two Albany agencies: the Department of Motor Vehicles and the State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. But here's what some might find to be a loophole in the whole bus transport industry: a driver can still go to work while a company waits on an answer from Albany.
"Yes, if a driver has an active license, they can go to work. And it would take approximately 30 days," Curcio said.
There is something else: Curcio's business is taking a hit.
"Yes it is. Every day of the week," Curcio said.
Curcio fired the bus matron, Linda Hockaday, almost immediately after she was arrested and taken to court. If Albany rules against the driver, Curcio will, reluctantly, do the same.
The bus driver was questioned repeatedly by police, and let go. Both the driver and the owner of the bus company have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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