The MTA driver at the wheel of a bus that fell over a ramp and hung from a Bronx overpass on Saturday denied the agency’s claim that he refused to take a drug test after the violent accident.
“I did not refuse a drug test,” insisted Everton Beccan at a news conference at his home in Mount Vernon, flanked by his daughter and representatives of the Transport Workers Union.
“I don’t use drugs, I have no reason not to take drugs. . . I am 1,000,000% absolutely certain that it will be negative. I’m not worried about it at all, ”said Beccan, 55, his jaw clenched and his face swollen from the injuries sustained in the accident.
He said his neck and knee were also injured.
Beccan, an 11-year-old MTA veteran, was operating the Bx35 bus on Thursday around 11 pm, when he exited a ramp on University Avenue that led to Washington Bridge, leaving the front half of the bus hanging from the overpass. Eight people, including Beccan, were injured.
Beccan passed the breathalyzer test at the scene, but did not cooperate when the MTA asked him for a urine sample, agency agency president Sarah Feinberg told reporters on Friday.
“Our concern is that he then refused to participate in the drug and alcohol testing determined by the FTA and the MTA, which is extremely rare for someone not to cooperate with him and, obviously, extremely problematic,” said Feinberg.
Beccan, who was suspended without pay pending an internal investigation, has an otherwise clean driving record.
A union representative said on Saturday that Beccan presented his urine sample at the hospital on Friday morning at about 10 am, and a blood test was done at 4 am that day.
TWU vice president Richie Davis said he “has no idea” why the MTA was supposed to lie about Beccan.
“This is just the MTA here. They have to look for someone to blame. I don’t know who gave them false information about me not taking a drug test, ”said Beccan.
“That’s why I told the union president to call the press. I wanted to clear my name. I don’t want my kids to see that I refused a drug test. They are defaming my name all over the place as if I were a drug user, ”he said.
“I tell them if they want me to have one now, tomorrow, anytime. I could take it every day, every day and every day and it will be negative, because I don’t use drugs. ”
In response to Beccan’s claims, the agency provided a detailed account of an MTA technician’s failed attempts to retrieve the sample directly from Beccan at the hospital on the night of the accident.
The technician claims to have shown up at the hospital where Beccan was being treated at around 3 am and asked an emergency doctor to see him.
In a 41-minute period, the doctor asked Beccan three times if he would see the representative, according to a statement from the technician.
GPS analysis shows that the bus was also traveling almost five times faster than the speed allowed for the turn it was making, officials said.
“I told the doctor that he will need to tell me in the face that he was refusing the test and the consequences of not getting tested. The doctor went to his room to trust[sic] the message and he came back with the same reply that the employee refused to take the test and did not want to talk to me ”, said the technician.
The driver on Saturday also denied having accelerated on the curve. The Bx35 bus was going between 17 and 26 mph at the time of the accident, officials said; the appropriate speed is between 3 and 4 mph, according to the agency.
Beccan said he eased the gas pedal when turning, but the bus accelerated.
“The bus just took off. . . If you operate a bus, hit the brakes and slow down when making a turn, but the bus took off on its own, ”he said.
“I’m just thinking, ‘Everyone is going to die. It’s happening, I don’t know what’s going to happen.
“Everyone was just screaming.”
The union said it would investigate the cause of the accident, using data from the vehicle’s black box.
“This was a tragic incident for everyone involved and the MTA continues to provide all the facts to the public,” said MTA spokesman Abbey Collins on Saturday night.
“Unfortunately, the bus operator declined his FTA and MTA drug and alcohol testing several times.
“This is a direct, non-negotiable and federally mandated requirement for all bus operators and other security-sensitive people,” she added.
“We cannot make exceptions to this requirement, nor should we. The investigation is still ongoing and we will release more information when it becomes available. “