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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah Transit Authority employee is no longer working for the agency after a video surfaced on social media earlier this week of a confrontation between him and a group of passengers on a FrontRunner train.
“UTA deeply regrets the incident and expects its employees to always behave professionally and respectfully,” agency officials said in a statement posted to Facebook.
Agency officials received the video Wednesday morning of the confrontation, which took place on Tuesday evening on a train that was headed to Ogden. The agency launched a full investigation, which is standard procedure for personnel matters, officials said.
The employee, who has not been identified, is no longer working with UTA as of Friday. UTA officials said they will not be releasing the employee’s name.
UTA officials said that the agency’s Interim Executive Director Steve Meyer had spoken to some of the people involved in the confrontation to apologize for the “egregious and regrettable behavior.”
The group of four women, who were riding the train to a concert in Ogden on Tuesday, said the employee confronted them while two were using the restroom, yelling and pounding on the door.
They said he also directed some crude remarks toward them, including calling them “porn stars.”
The video was shared to Facebook, where it had more than 4,600 shares as of Friday afternoon. In the video, the group can be seen arguing with the UTA employee.
UTA Spokesman Carl Arky said the agency has a policy of one person in the bathroom at a time on FrontRunner trains, but employees are told to use discretion when enforcing the rule.
Contributing: Mike Anderson, KSL TV
