Rep. Slater Calls for Free RIPTA Passes for Elderly & Disabled to be Reinstated
GoLocalProv News Team
Rep. Slater Calls for Free RIPTA Passes for Elderly & Disabled to be Reinstated
“As a member of the House Finance Committee, I have the opportunity to take part in crafting our state’s annual budget and I will be forcefully advocating to restore funding to the elderly and disabled free bus pass program. To ignore the needs of some of our state’s most vulnerable citizens is despicable and RIPTA should not be balancing its budget on the backs of these citizens. Funding this crucial and necessary program is a top priority for me so that our elderly and disabled are not cut off from the community and the vital services they need to survive on a daily basis,” said Representative Slater.
GoLocal's Investigations into RIPTA
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTGoLocalProv recently launched an investigation into RIPTA's new Safe Turn Alert System designed to alert pedestrians, bikers and other drivers that a bus is turning.
"The [safety alert] is a distraction. We can't have electronics on our seat at all -- no radios, cells, etc. So if it was mounted on the other side, drivers wouldn't be distracted," thirty-one-year RIPTA veteran driver Joseph Cole told GoLocalProv.
RIPTA has been under scrutiny and faces numerous lawsuits tied to deaths and accidents, and the agency has refused to turn over accident records to the media or to the attorneys, for the family of the 9-year-old girl killed by a RIPTA bus on Smith Street in 2015.
See the Lawsuit below
In a separate investigation, GoLocal uncovered that in 2016, more than 125 RIPTA employees made more than $20,000 in overtime. And, with overtime, more than 20 union positions earned over $100,000. The top overtimer at RIPTA earned $58,359.06 in overtime, on top of his base salary of $84,823.35 in 2016.
RIPTA Lawsuit
