Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority Driver Fired For Racist Action

EDGARTOWN (CBS) - A Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority driver has been fired for failing to pick up a passenger because he is black.

Around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, a Route 13 bus traveling from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs passed by a man trying to flag the bus on Beach Road, near Oakdale Drive in Edgartown, the transit authority said in a statement.

The bus was full and the bus driver failed to switch the destination marquee to read "Bus at capacity," the statement said.

The man took an Uber to Oak Bluffs, arriving shortly after the bus. He then approached the bus and asked the bus driver why he had passed him by.

According to the transit authority, after reviewing surveillance video from the bus, investigators found that the bus driver told the person that the bus was full, and when the man challenged his response, the driver "stated, 'Well, it's because you are black.'"

The driver was fired "effective immediately," the transit authority said.

The transit authority and Transit Connection Inc, which manages the bus drivers, "have a zero tolerance policy for this type of behavior," it said.