The comments made are crude, inappropriate and openly sexist. And their author risks paying them. Widely relayed on social networks, a video recorded by an RATP machinist – bus driver on line 177 and followed by tens of thousands of people on TikTok – has shocked Internet users in recent days. These images show him commenting, for more than a minute, on the public traveling on this axis, and more particularly on women. “I’ve never seen so many girls as on that line. The 177 is incredible, it’s an oven for chicks (…) I understand why my colleagues all want to do it. She’s slammed,” he says into his phone in video mode, which he points at him.
Apparently alone, the man continues his speech. “You’re married, you’re in a relationship, you’re dead (…) your eyes bleed. At any moment, there’s a girl smiling at you. There are even guys I know who have a license but park their car and get on the bus. Just to have some “eye contact,” he continues.
These comments provoked strong reactions from Internet users, who did not fail to call out the RATP on them, when another calls to “fire this driver”. Noticing the indignant comments, the main person reacted, accusing some of “inventing a life about [him]”. “They want to put me in the sauce on Twitter,” he also commented.
A few days later, another video made by this same man – in uniform and at his workplace – was posted on social networks. Still as shocking as the first, even more violent, but without us knowing if it predates the previous images. On it, the driver speaks to a woman who refuses to get off the bus at the terminal. “I’m going to fuck you (…) Shut your mouth, fuck your whore grandmother,” he tells her, before kicking her out of her vehicle.
This is too much for the RATP, which indicated this week that the machinist “who no longer drives” is now “the subject of a disciplinary procedure”. “The RATP condemns with the greatest firmness these actions contrary to the values of the company,” adds the autonomous Paris transport authority on its social networks, referring to “intolerable comments and behavior”. “The driver was received last week by his superiors,” specifies the group, without providing further information on the outcome of this case. The RATP also reminds us to “require irreproachable behavior from all of its agents”.
In the meantime, this man’s speech continues to provoke reactions and fuels major diatribes against the company. Denouncing “shocking” behavior, the boss of the region, Valérie Pécresse, called for this driver to be sanctioned.
