Results tagged “busdriver”

NYC Transit is investigating an incident where a passenger photographed an X5 bus driver texting while on the FDR Drive and Gowanus Expressway. The passenger told Staten Island Advance, "He must have texted three or four times. I remember there was one instance on the FDR where he rolled into the right lane but quickly corrected himself. It was pretty frightening. We had a full bus...and even he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. I really don't get it."

A school bus ride for the nine young summer campers at the Magic Carpet Day Camp turned tragic when their driver dropped dead of a heart attack and collapsed out of the bus while driving yesterday in Queens. Ramon Fernandez, 47, died after losing consciousness while stopped at a red light behind the wheel of a camp school bus in Elmhurst. Fernandez then collapsed out of the door he was keeping open while stopped in order to get additional ventilation into the un-air conditioned bus. When Fernandez fell out, 16-year-old camp counselor Rachel Guzy leaped forward and reached for the emergency brake as the bus slowly rolled into another vehicle in the intersection. The bus matron had minor injuries, but all of the Bayside campers were unharmed. An 11-year-old on board told the Post, "He was driving with the door open because it was really hot, and he felt really hot. It's not normal...Me and my friend, we were in the front near the counselor. She was crying, very nervous after it happened....[Rachel] saved our lives because she pulled the brake."

Ever thought about what your bus driver, or the people on your bus for that matter, do when they're not on the job? The NY Times has a story about one bus driver, Christopher Dolan, who has been driving for the city for 27 years and belts out operas on his route. That certainly makes the 2 bucks easier to hand over.

An update on the incident where a passenger on the M104 bus bit the driver: According to the driver, the woman was upset his bus wasn't a hybrid. The Daily News spoke to driver Peter Williams, who said, "She came on the bus, and she said she waited more than an hour for a hybrid. I said, 'I'm not in control of what bus is assigned to me.'" That's when Shelia Bolar yelled at him and then went for his arm: "Bolar chomped through a jacket, a sweater and a thick shirt, causing a bruise and swelling but not breaking skin." (Her niece told the News earlier this week that her aunt is "little... She likes attention. She's going to do whatever's gonna get her the most attention.") Bolar, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to undergo a psychiatric exam.

A veteran MTA driver who was bitten by a passenger on a crowded M104 bus in Manhattan yesterday afternoon was rushed to St. Luke's Hospital for tests after the incident. According to an MTA spokesman, Shelia Bolar, 49, "had given 42-year-old driver Peter Williams a problem on the bus. He got up to tell the dispatcher and when he rose from his seat the woman bit him." After sinking her teeth into Williams's forearm, Bolar ran south on Broadway before being arrested near West 73rd Street; she's charged with second-degree assault. The attack is reminiscent of last December's fatal stabbing of bus driver Edwin Thomas, which has prompted the MTA to test out new driver partitions on buses. Speaking to the Daily News about yesterday's mouthful, Bolar's neice says, "She's a little... She likes attention. She's going to do whatever's gonna get her the most attention."

A new detail related to the disabled man who, instead of being taken home from his day program, was abandoned on a freezing bus for 17 hours by the bus matron. The bus's driver has, the Post reports, "a shocking rap sheet of 28 arrests, including an assault on a Bronx cop." Walter Gibbs has been charged with "forgery, grand larceny, theft of service and drug crimes on his record," and most recently, "grand larceny and harassment," this past summer. According to Outstanding Transport's website, its drivers are "are 19A Motor Vehicle Qualified. This means that they are randomly drug tested, fingerprinted, background checked and with no criminal background." But when the Post headed to the home of Charles Curcio, head of Outstanding Transport, Curcio "slammed the door." A police source told the Daily News, "He has no business driving a school bus or being anywhere near any kids, no matter what age."

In the wake of the fatal stabbing of B46 bus driver Edwin Thomas by a passenger earlier this month in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the MTA has announced a pilot program to test partitions that would separate drivers from passengers. The partitions will be tested on buses operating out of the Flatbush Depot in Brooklyn, the Times reports. A committee studying bus driver safety is also urging the MTA do away with the paper transfers issued on buses because it's a common cause of confrontation between drivers and passengers. Thomas was allegedly stabbed to death by 20-year-old Horace Moore after Thomas refused to hand out a paper transfer because he hadn't paid his fare. And the MTA also released a study showing that there were 236 assaults on bus drivers so far this year through December 9th, and 18 percent of those were related to fare evasion. (67 of the incidents involved the driver being spit on.)

Yesterday, bus drivers, MTA executives and friends joined the family of Edwin Thomas at his funeral. Thomas was killed last week while driving a B46 bus when an angry passenger stabbed him. The Transport Workers Union vowed to propose legislation for safer buses and NYC Transit president Howard Roberts said, "The legacy of Edwin Thomas will be a more secure and safe environment for bus drivers in this city."

for fatally stabbing a bus driver aboard a B46 bus in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon. Horace Moore reportedly confessed to police "that he stabbed the driver, Edwin Thomas, 46... after an argument on the bus." (Thomas is pictured at left.)

A man is being questioned in connection to the murder of a B46 bus driver yesterday afternoon in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The driver, Edwin Thomas, was fatally stabbed by a passenger over an argument about a transfer. 1010 WINS reports, "A tip led police to the [28-year-old] man, an alleged drug dealer, who was taken into custody at a friend's house in East New York." He is being questioned at the 81st Precinct.

A bus driver on the B46 line in Brooklyn died after being stabbed around 12:30 p.m. today. WCBS 2 reports, "Police told CBS 2 HD that a passenger leaving the bus asked for a transfer. The driver refused to give him one. An argument ensued and the suspect pulled out an object and stabbed the driver with it." The driver was taken to Woodhull Hospital, and then transferred to NY Presbyterian, where he died. The suspect is a black male in his late teens; WABC 7 reports that a witness chased him, but lost him.

Worst second day of school ever! Over 20 five- and six-year-olds students from Achievement First Charter School in Brownsville were stuck on a bus for five hours when their driver "got lost but wouldn't admit it." One parent told the Daily News, "I was going crazy. I was thinking the bus was in an accident." The driver, Joseph Gray, 53, was already an hour late, arriving at 4:45 p.m., and didn't finish dropping kids off until 9:20 p.m. One parent said her "traumatized" daughter saw Gray "looking at a paper" (maybe a map?). The bus company's lawyer said, "We are trying to find out exactly what happened with this driver, because the conduct so far appears to be bizarre," adding if the Department of Education installed GPS on the bus, it could have been found sooner. So far, the DOE has just suspended Gray.

A bus driver was treated for wounds to her hand after an irate rider attacked her yesterday afternoon.