Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority officials say the supervisor believed 68-year-old Leonard Sedden was drunk before he died aboard a cross-town bus early Sunday morning.
Driver Nantika Manfra contacted dispatch after becoming alarmed at Sedden's condition. Her conversation was captured on audio tape.
"I have a passenger who's not responding to me. Banging on the seats or even moving his feet... looks as though he has peed on himself, he has drool. I can't get any response."
The dispatcher tells Manfra a supervisor will meet up with her on the route.
"So just leave him on the bus and pick up passengers?" Manfra is heard to say on the SEPTA audio recording. "Yes," the dispatcher replied. "Don't want to delay service."
The supervisor boarded the bus and determined Sedden was breathing. The supervisor said police would remove him at a later stop and told Manfra to keep driving.
"He checked the passenger, it appears the passenger is breathing but he wants me to go ahead and take him down to Frankford Terminal and have the police take him off the vehicle," Manfra said.
The bus arrived at the terminal where it was met by SEPTA Police.
"Uh, SEPTA Police are here," Manfra said. "He believes the passenger is dead, I guess he's starting whatever his procedures are."
"Did you say dead?" the disptacher replies.
"Yes, he said he believes the passenger is dead," Manfra told him.
Officials say Sedden died of a drug overdose complicated by a heart condition.
SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said everyone involved followed proper procedures.
Manfra has filed a report, claiming she was traumatized by having a dead passenger on board her bus. Action News found her at her home in Morrisville, Pa. but she had no comment.
Maloney said the audio recordings show no sign that Manfra was traumatized.
"There is no sign of distress on the part of the operator," Maloney said. "She sounds calm and cool and collected. She doesn't ask for an ambulance, doesn't ask for the police. She doesn't ask for any help."
SEPTA says it is common on that late-night run to have passengers who pass out after a night of drinking or drug use. SEPTA says the policy is to let those passengers sleep it off rather than risk a violent confrontation.
