Airport shuttle driver sent to prison for cell-phone crash

A judge sentenced an airport shuttle bus driver today to one year in jail after she ran a red light while using a cell phone and struck a man, seriously injuring him, prosecutors said.

Tiana Wilbert, a 32-year-old San Francisco resident, pleaded no contest on Dec. 9 to felony reckless driving causing great bodily injury.

Judge Leland Davis ordered her to serve the one-year jail sentence along with three years of supervised probation, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Wilbert was driving a San Francisco International Airport shuttle bus on Dec. 31, 2014 and was using her cell phone when she ran a red light.

She struck a 32-year-old man who was in the crosswalk. The man suffered serious injuries, including brain bleeding, a fractured clavicle, broken ribs, two broken legs, a collapsed lung, a torn spleen, and a broken pelvis, according to prosecutors.

Wilbert then denied being on her cell phone and claimed the light was green, despite bus video that contradicted her statement, prosecutors said.

The victim told the judge he still feels the pain and the impact of the collision, Wagstaffe said. The man can no longer run, and Wagstaffe said he also told the court that he had dreams of becoming a police officer that the collision made impossible.

Wagstaffe said restitution would be determined in civil court, where the victim has a case pending against Wilbert.

Wilbert, a mother of two children, has only one day of jail time served and is scheduled to begin her sentence on May 7.

Her defense attorney, May Mar, did not return a request for comment.

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