buses

Due to inspections that found "structural issues," NECN reports.

Boston Metro reports the state wants federal transportation officials to shut the entire company down until it fixes the problems.

Max Grinnell asks:

Policy wonk moment: which T bus route has the most affluent residents? Anybody know?

A Walpole man is scheduled for arraignment on charges he allegedly beat three women waiting for a bus at Ruggles on Saturday.

According to MBTA Transit Police, Francis Cocuzzo, 40, went up to a woman waiting for a 28 bus around 6 p.m. and shoved her with his forearm:

The 2nd female victim intervened and told Cocuzzo to stop his behavior. Cocuzzo responded by grabbing the 2nd female victim by her jacket, restraining her against the bus and punching her repeatedly about the body. Cocuzzo then ripped a necklace the victim was wearing off her neck and placed it into his pocket. A third female victim attempted to stop Cocuzzo from his violent assault however he kicked her in the thigh area.

Police say that Cocuzzo then spit at responding officers and resisted being handcuffed. He was charged with assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (shod foot0 and unarmed robbery. EMTs examined the women at the scene; none required hospitalization.

Innocent, etc.

MBTA and Boston police are investigating whether a woman struck by some sort of pellet around 1:45 p.m. today on Washington Street near Arboretum Road was shot by the same people who shot at an inbound 35 bus in the same area last night.

MBTA Transit Police report the driver of the bus last night "observed two individuals standing in a driveway who appeared to be holding a firearm," as the bus passed Archdale Road on its way to Forest Hills.

Police say two of the buses windows were "intact but completely fractured" after apparently being shot at with "an air powered BB gun."

Boston Police today identified the BU student who died on Brighton Avenue on Monday as Chung-Wei Yang, 21.

Police add:

Preliminary investigation suggests an MBTA bus did come in contact with the victim. There is no indication that the driver or any of the passengers on the bus knew anyone was struck. At this time, no charges have been filed.

The bicycle after the crash. Photo copyright Scott Eisen.

A 21-year-old BU student died after a collision at Brighton and Harvard avenues with an MBTA bus.

Scott Eisen reports the bus seems to have simply driven away. WCVB reports police say the driver of the Route 57 bus did not realize he'd hit someone. BostInno reports the driver was taken off the job as the investigation continued.

Boston Biker has some more info on the bicyclist.

Traffic in the area quickly snarled after police shut Harvard Avenue to allow an investigation.

In June:
Bicyclist struck, killed in collision involving MBTA bus on Huntington Avenue.

No bunching for this 39 bus.

The Globe reports a T worker who found a wallet on a Charlestown bus seat with $900 inside returned it to its owner.

MBTA Transit Police report a man responded to a bus driver's refusal to let him off the bus exactly where he wanted this morning by punching the driver in the head, pushing out an emergency-exit window and jumping out.

Boston EMTs rendered aid to the driver, stopped at 700 Albany St. around 5:40 a.m. Police continue to hunt for the puncher.

MBTA Transit Police report arresting a man they say went even more berserk than he already was when ordered off a bus in Dudley Square for swearing at the driver.

Police say that around 7:45, a route-45 driver picked up Carlos Ramirez-Rodrigue, 38, at Blue Hill Avenue and Dudley Street:

Ramirez-Rodrigue entered the bus and immediately began yelling and swearing at the driver who asked Ramirez-Rodrigue to get off the bus which he did. While exiting the bus Ramirez-Rodrigue spit in the direction of the driver multiple times. When Ramirez-Rodrigue exited the bus, the driver closed the front passenger side door. Ramirez-Rodrigue then began punching the front passenger door with a closed fist and shattered the window.

MBTA Transit Police report they are looking for a man who allegedly slapped and spit at a bus driver for passing him by.

Police report the route-428 driver was attacked around 6:30 p.m. yesterday at Main and Forest streets in Malden. They provide this account:

MBTA Transit Police report they are looking for a man who spit at a T bus driver around 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 4 at Washington and Harvard streets in Charlestown.

If you know him, drop a dime to 617-222-1050 or send a text to 873873.

MBTA Transit Police report that when they asked Dennis Banks what he was doing inside a stairway in a building at the Arborway bus depot yesterday evening,

Banks replied he was "taking a s***" or better stated Banks claimed he was going to the bathroom on the stairs.

Then officers noticed "a freshly cut four foot section of half inch copper resting on a back pack." A quick survey revealed the pipe would have fit exactly in a four-foot gap in a section of pipe on the wall:

ChinatownKicks watched this turkey in Harvard Square yesterday.

Copyright ChinatownKicks. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Shortly before 8 p.m., a man who'd just gotten off a bus on Washington Street was robbed by three men on Wellsmere Road near Kittridge. He told police they put a knife to his throat and took his phone.

They're described as black, in their late teens or early 20s. Two were above 6' tall.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette gets action - and dishes that bus drivers have a button they can press that automatically generates a report to MBTA Transit Police about bus stops filled with delivery trucks or other vehicles.

The state auditor's office today released a report that found a nearly $102-million discrepancy over five years between the cash the MBTA actually took in through fare boxes on buses and trolleys and the amount those boxes said they were fed.

The MBTA said that simply reflects software issues, not massive amounts of theft or money rolling behind driver's seats, and the auditor's office says that's possible, but there's currently no way to know for sure:

Because the MBTA lacked effective physical controls over the hundreds of keys that provide access to fare box cash at the time of its initial receipt and transfer into the MBTA revenue system, the MBTA cannot ensure that all fare box cash is properly safeguarded against possible loss, theft, or misuse.

The [automated fare collection] system does not properly record all essential events necessary to properly track the removal, deposit, and reinsertion of cash boxes into assigned fare boxes. The inability of the AFC system to give MBTA management reliable tracking information regarding the movement of fare box cash exposes such revenue to potential fraudulent activity.

Stanley Staco reports it happened around 9:10 p.m. at Washington and East Newton streets.

UPDATE, Friday morning: The MBTA reports the driver was spit on, not pummeled, that one man was caught and that he will be summonsed into court.

MBTA Transit Police report two minors trying to procure some mid-day booze at a Forest Hills liquor store wound up in a fight with a guy who jabbed himself with a needle, pulled out some blood and then told them they'd better back off because he has AIDS.

Police say Jose Soler, 47, of Hyde Park, originally agreed, shortly after 1 p.m. yesterday, to buy some liquor for a pair of underagers at the Forest Hills Liquor Mart across from the T stop. They gave him $25 and agreed to let him keep $5 as his fee. But he returned to the station without liquor, handed the teens only $3 and then walked into the station's lower busway. And that's when things got ugly:

An Everett man was arrested last night after he allegedly beat and kicked an MBTA bus driver in a fit of anger over being left behind at Wonderland station, MBTA Transit Police say.

According to a police report, the driver had pulled his 455 bus into the Lynn commuter-rail station in Central Square last night when Paul Kouroyen got on, asked if he were the driver who had left him at Wonderland station and when the driver said yes, brutally attacked him:

ElCantabridgian captured the scene in Central Square this afternoon when a motorcycle cop pulled over a T bus for running a red light. Unlike last week in Kenmore Square, there was no mayhem this time.

MBTA Transit Police report a man they initially intended to just ticket for drinking a malt beverage and smoking a cigarette at Forest Hills last night found himself under arrest when they discovered he was wanted in Chelsea for assault with intent to murder and aggravated assault.

According to a police report, around 9:30 p.m., an officer making a routine swing through the area around the 39 bus berth under the overpass noticed:

[A] male party, later identified as Ronaldo Taylor, sitting on a retaining wall behind the Inspector's booth. I approached Taylor to see what he was doing. As I was approaching him, I observed he had an open container of a 40 ounce malt beverage and he was smoking a cigarette.

Lataria Milton is the MBTA driver charged with getting angry and running her bus into a meter maid and several cars. Latarian Milton is the then-7-year-old charged with getting angry and crashing his grandmother's SUV into a curb and several cars.

WBZ reports our Milton was released on personal recognizance at her arraignment in Roxbury District Court today - and that the T has started the process of firing her. Her lawyer says the bus lurched forward by itself.

Innocent, etc.

An MBTA bus driver is scheduled for arraignment in Roxbury District Court tomorrow on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after she allegedly ran down a Boston parking supervisor trying to give her a parking ticket in Kenmore Square this morning.

Lataria Milton, 34, eating breakfast at the time, at first responded to a request by a BTD supervisor that she move her bus out of a no-standing zone in Kenmore Square by ignoring her, officials say. When the supervisor began writing a ticket, Milton stepped on the bus's accelerator, hitting the supervisor and causing a chain-reaction crash that left four cars damaged.

WCVB reports Milton has a lengthy record of driving infractions in her off hours.

Innocent, etc.

Crash aftermath. Note cluster of meter maids on right. Photo by Susan Zalkind.

A city transportation worker is in the hospital this morning following a confrontation with an MBTA bus driver in Kenmore Square that ended with the driver plowing into the worker - and several parked cars - WBZ reports.

The collisions, which happened around 8:30 a.m., started as an incident in which a BTD supervisor told the driver - eating breakfast - to move her bus out of a left-turn lane and the driver refused, WBZ says.

Kenmore Square quickly became a giant parking lot as emergency vehicles and police flooded the area.

Nancy Chen at WHDH reports the driver was noshing on a bagel and drinking coffee when she was asked to move.

Another photo of the scene.