(The following report appeared on the Mainichi Daily News website on June 4.)
SENDAI, Japan — A local subway train driver was suspended from duty over a four-month period beginning Friday for sending an e-mail while operating a train late last month, officials said.
The Sendai Municipal Government’s Transport Bureau also reprimanded three of his bosses for failing to properly supervise the driver.
The 38-year-old driver, whose name was not disclosed, used his mobile phone to write a message and sent it to a colleague while he was at the controls of a subway train on the evening of May 28, according to bureau officials.
The incident surfaced after a passenger who was aboard the train notified the bureau via its homepage. The bureau’s in-house regulations ban subway train drivers from using mobile phones while driving a train.