Exclusive: Ambulette driver caught on camera texting, sleeping

HARLEM, Manhattan (WABC) -- So what would you do if you saw the driver of an ambulette, supposedly driving you and your mom around, but instead dozing off at a stop light, or texting when he was awake and driving?

The daughter of the patient used her cellphone to record those actions.

"A ride from hell," said Jetante Morris, Access-a-Ride user.

48-year-old Jetante and her 16-year-old daughter Sha-Aejea say they feared for their lives last Wednesday when an Access-a-Ride driver took them downtown.

"He took off like a bat out of hell, music loud, driving recklessly," Jetante said.

Sha-Aejea was in the front and took videos the driver.

"When he was on the highway, he was doing this, and he kept doing it," Sha-Aejea said.

Worse yet, she says the cabbie was also texting while driving.

"I was like, 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die,'" Sha-Aejea said.

The mother, in her wheelchair in the back of the green cab, claims the driver never buckled her in properly and that the ramp was slamming into her during the ride.

"I was holding on like this. My wheelchair was up in the air. My head was back like this," Jetante said.

Eyewitness News reached out to the livery company that provides extra cars for Access-a-Ride, they claim the driver doesn't work directly for them. We also reached out to the MTA, so far no response.

Meanwhile, Jetante says the green cab driver last week ruined her wheelchair and injured her back, neck and arm. She is now planning to sue.