Detroit Bus Driver Dies of Coronavirus After Posting Rant About Woman Refusing to Cover Cough

A Detroit bus driver has died of coronavirus days after complaining about a passenger who refused to cover her cough.

Jason Hargrove posted a passionate rant on Facebook Live on March 21, telling followers about a woman who was openly coughing on his route. 11 Days later he was dead.

"This coronavirus shit is for real. And we out here as public workers, doing our job, trying to make an honest living to take care of our families," he tells his followers in the eight-minute clip.

"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're in the middle of a pandemic -- that lets me know that some folks don't care."

He said the ignorant passenger wasn't even a teenager, but a woman in her late fifties or early sixties.

"Y'all need to take this serious. There's folks dying out here," he ominously warns.

WARNING: Graphic language

When a follower asked him if he asked the woman to leave, he said he wanted to, but didn't want to be seen as the "big angry-assed bus driver" throwing people off.

"I'm trying to be the professional that they want me to be and I kept my mouth closed, but it's at some point in time where you got to draw the line and say enough is enough," he said.

"I feel violated. I feel violated for the folks that were on the bus when this happened. There was about eight or nine people on the bus that stood there as she coughed and never covered up her mouth."

He said he immediately had the bus cleaned down and disinfected his cab.

"I'm going to set the whole bus on fire... that mother contaminated in my book," he joked at the end.

"If you ain't got to go out -- don't go out. If you go out cover up your face," he added. "If you see someone coughing and they don't cover up -- bust them in the back of the head."

According to WXYZ Detroit, Hargrove died on Wednesday night, after being hospitalized with COVID-19.

Glenn Tolbert, president of Detroit's Department of Transportation bus drivers union, said seven of the 530 drivers have tested positive for the virus, and 100 are currently in quarantine.

Michigan is under a stay at home order, but bus services continue to run on a reduced timetable.

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