Bus Driver Dies From COVID-19 After Complaining About Passengers Coughing

Two weeks after posting a Facebook video about his passengers coughing, Detriot bus driver Jason Hargrove has died from complications of COVID-19.

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Hargrove’s video posted on March 21 was made after a female passenger got on his bus and repeatedly coughed. Hargrove encouraged anyone with coronavirus symptoms to stay home: “We out here as public workers doing our job, trying to make an honest living to take care of our families. But for you to get on the bus and stand on the bus and cough several times without covering up your mouth and you know that we in the middle of a pandemic, that lets me know that some folks don’t care.

“It’s folks dying out here. I’m mad right about now because that s**t was uncalled for. And I’m trying to be the professional that they want me to be, so I kept my mouth closed … I feel violated. I feel violated for the folks that were on the bus when this happened.”

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan confirmed Hargrove’s passing and says that the bus driver began feeling ill days after posting the video: “He knew his life was being put in jeopardy, even though he was going to work for the citizens of Detroit every day, by somebody who just didn’t care. By somebody who didn’t take this seriously. And now he’s gone.”

Hargrove is survived by his wife.

[Via]