INEPTA Hits All-Time Low

Talk about "dying for a ride...."

Man dies on SEPTA bus ‘sleeping off’ a drunk
Inquirer Staff Report

Believing the passenger was just sleeping off a drunk, a SEPTA supervisor allowed an unresponsive man who had urinated his pants to stay on a SEPTA bus on a cross city trip from the 69th Street Terminal to the Frankford Transportation Center.

But when the bus reached the end of the line, the man was dead.

Defending the supervisor's decision, SEPTA this morning confirmed a story in the Metro that Leonard Sedden, 68, apparently died on the trip on a Market-Frankford NiteOwl bus early Sunday.

He had suffered a fatal heart attack from a drug overdose.

A transcript of a communications between the bus driver and a control supervisor published by the Metro showed the driver voicing concern about the passenger's condition when she got on the bus. She reported he had urinated his pants and was drooling.

SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams verified the accuracy of the transcript.

The control supervisor told the driver to continue on the trip and that a route supervisor would meet the bus later. "I don't want to delay service," the supervisor said.

A route supervisor later determined the man was still breathing and told the driver to continue to Frankford, where police would take him off the bus, the driver told the control supervisor.

When the bus arrived, Sedden, who has an arrest record and was awaiting a court hearing on drug possession charges, was dead.

Williams said intoxicated people frequently ride buses during the night and that they are allowed to remain on board as long as they are not causing a disturbance.

The supervisor "was trying to keep on schedule," Williams said.

"He was just willing to allow this person to sleep it off, to remain on the bus so the bus could continue," she said.

The Metro identified the bus driver as Natika Manfra and quoted her as saying, "It just boggles me that I was riding around and he was deceased and other passengers were getting on."