Contraflow bus on the ring road: the driver had only six months of seniority

The conditions under which the 125 bus, which circulates between the veterinary school, in Maisons-Alfort, in the Val-de-Marne, and the Porte d'Orléans, could arrive in the opposite direction on the ring road, were still unclear this Friday .

The driver, a fixed-term machinist since May, will be heard next week by management.

The latter was filmed on Wednesday by a motorist while he was maneuvering his vehicle loaded with passengers, in the opposite direction on the ring road, at the Porte de Gentilly, in Paris.

He seems to have arrived there by a slip road in the wrong direction.

The author of the video, the passenger of a car blocked by the maneuver of the bus driver, cannot believe it: “He took the ring road in the opposite direction!

With the world in there... They all almost died.

The drama was avoided.

Obviously, the vehicles momentarily stopped to let the vehicle turn around.

“An inexcusable maneuver”

“It's a mistake of course, and it could have been serious.

But this shows the training at a discount since the opening to competition, defends Cémil Kaygisiz, secretary general of the CGT RATP-Bus.

When I arrived, we were trained for a month on the same line with an experienced machinist who explained the little tricks to us”.

According to him, it is now more often with a tablet, and more rarely with a pair that this training would take place.

Management disagrees.

“It is not a question of training, the machinist was trained on this line last June, he knew it, we specify at the RATP.

The training of our drivers is always provided in the same way with the same level of requirement and in accordance with European directives.

It lasts between two to six months depending on the license of the agents hired.

When they arrive, they are accompanied online for around twenty days by an experienced machinist or an assistant trainer”.

"This maneuver is totally prohibited and inexcusable", however reacted the RATP, after having verified the reality of the facts.

“The driver was quickly identified and terminated.

He will be received by his management in the coming days as part of a disciplinary interview.

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