The MTA driver who was behind the bus coming out of a ramp and hanging from an overpass in the Bronx on Saturday denied the agency’s claim to refuse to take a drug test after the savage devastation.
“I did not refuse a drug test,” Everton Beccan insisted at a press conference at his Mount Vernon home, flanked by his daughter and representatives of the Transport Workers’ Union.
“I don’t do drugs, I have no reason not to take a drug test. . . I am sure the 1,000,000% will be negative. I’m not at all worried about that, ”Beccan, 55, said with his jaw closed and his face swollen from injuries sustained during the crash.
He said his neck and knee were also injured.
Beccan, an 11-year MTA veteran, was operating the Bx35 bus around 11pm on Thursday when he left a ramp on University Avenue leading to the Washington Bridge, leaving the front half of the bus hanging from the overpass. Eight people, including Beccan, were injured.
Beccan passed a breathalyzer test at the scene, but did not cooperate when the MTA asked him for a urine sample, the agency’s interim president, Sarah Feinberg, told reporters on Friday.
“Our concern is that she then refused to participate in the blood alcohol and mandatory TLC and MTA test, which is extremely rare for someone not to cooperate with her and obviously extremely worrying,” Feinberg said.
Beccan, who was suspended without pay pending an internal probe, has a clean driving history otherwise.
A union representative said Saturday that Beccan presented his urine sample at the hospital Friday morning around 10 a.m. and that a blood test was done at 4 a.m. that day.
TWU vice president Richie Davis said they “have no idea” why the MTA allegedly lied about Beccan.
“This is the MTA right there. They have to find someone to blame. I don’t know who gave them false information about my non-drug testing, ”Beccan said.
“That’s why I told the president of the union to call the press. I wanted to erase my name. I don’t want my kids to see that I turned down a drug test. They are spreading my name everywhere as if I were a drug user, ”he said.
“I tell them if they want me to take one now, tomorrow, at any time. I could take it every day, all day and every day and it will be negative, because I don’t do drugs ”.
In response to Beccan’s claims, the agency provided detailed accounts of the failed attempts of an MTA technician to retrieve the sample directly from Beccan at the hospital the night of the accident.
The technician claims to have presented himself at the hospital where Beccan was being treated around three in the morning and asked an emergency doctor to visit him.
Within 41 minutes, the doctor asked Beccan three times if he would see the rep, according to a statement from the coach.
GPS analysis shows the bus was also traveling nearly five times faster than the speed allowed by the turn it was making, officials said.
“I told the doctor that I should tell my face that I was rejecting the test and the consequences of not doing it. The doctor went to his room to trust[sic] the message and came back with the same answer that the employee refuses to take the test and did not want to talk to me “, it was said in the technician’s statement.
On Saturday, the driver also denied acceleration during the turn. The Bx35 bus was going between 17 and 26 mph at the time of the crash, officials said; the proper speed is between 3 and 4 mph, depending on the agency.
Beccan said he released the gas pedal while making the turn, but the bus sped up.
“The bus has just left. . . If you drive a bus, touch the breaks and slow down when you make a turn, but the bus just took off on its own, ”he said.
“I just think like,‘ Everyone is going to die. It’s over, I don’t know what will happen.
“Everyone was just screaming.”
The union said it would investigate the cause of the crash, using data from the vehicle’s black box.
“This was a tragic incident for everyone involved and the MTA continues to provide the full facts to the public,” MTA spokeswoman Abbey Collins said Saturday night.
“Unfortunately, the bus operator repeatedly refused his drug and alcohol test required by the LAC and the MTA.
“This is a simple, non-negotiable and mandatory requirement for all bus operators and other safety-sensitive personnel,” he added.
“We cannot make any exceptions to this requirement, nor should we. The investigation is ongoing and we will release more information when it becomes available. “