Ex-CAT employees say buses biohazard

J. Craig Anderson

Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005 | 7:18 a.m.

Diseased bodily fluids and contaminated water are among the biological hazards that two former Citizens Area Transit employees say have gone untreated on public buses in recent years.

Albert Hunkin, who worked for transit system contractor ATC as a maintenance supervisor until late 2004, presented documents to the Clark County Commission last week detailing what he called a systematic disregard for public health on buses.

Among the documents were copies of "exposure report forms" filled out by employees stating that potentially harmful bodily fluids were left unreported, untreated and uncontained while buses continued to operate.

One such report, from August 2002, indicates blood was left untreated on the floor under a passenger seat during one coach operator's shift.

"A bus driver cut her finger on the door air release valve," the report states. "She stated to foreman on duty that she had Hepatitis C."

Still, the spill was not cleaned up until after the shift was over, the document states.

Other reports show that vomit and urine were left untreated inside buses on multiple occasions.

Hunkin also handed over copies of a maintenance log he kept in 2004 indicating that for several months, buses were washed with recycled water that smelled like sewage from bacterial contamination, but ATC management told employees to keep using it anyway.

A written reply he received from a supervisor in June 2004 after reporting the problem states: "Suggest wash till ya puke."

Hunkin began working for ATC in 1997 and was promoted to supervisor in 1999. The company, based in Oak Brook, Ill., has a contract with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada to operate Clark County's public transit system.

His wife, Daphne Hunkin, also has worked for ATC as a bus driver. She acknowledged that as former employees, their criticism might seem like sour grapes. In fact, the Hunkins are thinking about suing because of circumstances leading to Albert's resignation.

He said ATC management demoted him after an incident in which some bags of biological waste ended up in a Dumpster designated for regular trash. But Hunkin said the real reason was that he had been labeled as a "whistleblower" for complaining when health and safety rules were not enforced.

The Hunkins said they complained to the County Commission out of a desire to get ATC to make buses safer for employees and passengers.

"The public is being exposed," Albert Hunkin said.

RTC spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said she could not comment on Hunkin's employment history because personnel matters are confidential.

Reisman said she was not familiar enough with the Hunkins' allegations of unhealthy practices -- even after the Las Vegas Sun sent her a copy of the documents -- to comment specifically.

"I will say that the RTC takes our safety and operations of our transit very seriously," she said.

During a Nov. 15 County Commission meeting that the Hunkins attended, Commissioner Tom Collins advised county staff to look into what can be done about health concerns in the transit system.

"This is not an isolated case," Collins said.

Albert Hunkin said immediate cleanup of bodily fluids is vital to maintaining healthy conditions on buses, because vomiting and urination are common among the CAT system's often inebriated passengers.

He said the problem could become even worse now that the RTC has introduced its new "Deuce" double-decker buses.

"If they have such a hard time cleaning vomit off a single deck, I can't imagine how they're going to clean a double deck," Hunkin said.

J. Craig Anderson can be reached at 259-2320 or at craig@lasvegassun.com.