Yep, it’s official. Ten-year TriMet veteran Lahcen Qouchbane has been canned after a video of him reading a Kindle while driving blew up all over local media.
It’s worth hearing Quochbane’s side of the story, though. His lawyer told The Oregonian that Quochbane wasn’t reading the Kindle while driving—he’d been reading it during his break and happened to leave it on the dash after he started on the route. Believe him? I don’t know, but TriMet’s new policy banning cell phones, cameras, or other electronic equipment in plain site while driving got him fired either way.
Yeah I definitely don’t believe him, considering the way he was driving with one elbow…
That video doesn’t lie. They say when he reaches down that he was adjusting dash controls for the wipers or something, but that Kindle wobbles back and forth like a page-turn button just got pressed. Nice try.
Chatty attorney is pretty bad. You pretty much have to shut up in situations like this if you have ANY chance at winning later.
Job Opening!
“Lahcen Qouchbane?”
I think I tried to play that in Scrabble once.
I saw a female Tri-Met driver about 2 weeks ago reading a book at a stop light. I pulled up next to her at the light and she kinda glanced over then continued reading.