Dudley Street

UPDATE: BPS tweets the typo is being corrected today, mere hours after officials learned about it.

The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative has posted a photo of a new sign welcoming visitors to BPS's Dudley Street Neighoborhood Charter School (at BPS, reading is fundomental).

Speaking of BPS, looks like it won't be entering the school year next week with a teacher contract. This just in from the Boston Teachers Union:

Dudley bus crash. Photo by Eric Esteves.

Matt Grabowski tweets it happened at Dudley and Warren around 9:30 a.m. and that at least 12 people were injured. The Boston Fire Department reports several people were taken to local hospitals, with all expected to survive. The bus plowed into a trailer set up for the production crew of a Sandra Bullock movie being filmed in Dudley Square.

More photos: The injured | The bus | The injured and the bus

Filmogaphy: Bullock, of course, previously starred in a movie about an exploding bus, as Jendepo182 notes.

MBTA Transit Police today charged Brian Donovan, 18, of Dedham, in connection with a crash that left an MBTA bus in a Dudley Street storefront, a teen pinned against the wall, on April 11.

Donovan, who can be seen in a Pepsi jacket in a video of the crash aftermath, was charged with assault and battery on a public employee and wrongful interference with a common carrier.

The teen pinned to the wall, Felix Garcia, was charged a couple days after the crash for similar offenses, as was Michael Baptista (who can be seen in the video wearing a suit and tie).

Police charge the three began beating the driver after he went to the back of the bus to demand whoever was smoking cut it out, and that the bus crashed after the driver lost consciousness under the hail of fists. Garcia and Baptista, however, allege the driver attacked them and deliberately aimed his bus at Garcia after the teens got off the bus.

Innocent, etc.

Courtney Sacco photographed the aftermath of a collision between a Boston Police motorcycle and a truck at 318 Dudley St. in Roxbury shortly after 4 p.m. this afternoon. The Globe reports the officer was escorting a funeral when she collided with the truck, which had pulled over to let the procession by. Boston Police report the officer was conscious and alert when taken to the hospital.

Copyright Courtney Sacco. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

An MBTA Transit Police report on Monday's Dudley Street crash offers witnesses corroborating the driver's version of events - that he stopped the bus and ordered a bunch of teens off the bus for smoking but that two, including one who at first demanded he "shut the fuck up and drive the bus" caught up to him at the front door and began beating him

[Read the complete report | Listen to driver's calll for help | Watch video right after the crash]

The report, used as part of the process that led to the arrest and arraignment of Felix Garcia and Michael Baptista, also has their side of the story - that the driver ordered them off even though they weren't smoking, that he insulted the "cheap" suit one of them was wearing and that when they got to the front to get his number for a complaint they wanted to make, he got out of his seat and began swinging - and then sat down and drove the bus right at them.

The police reported this interview with the driver, whom they observed to have "multiple contusions, redness and swelling to his head and face:"

The Globe reports on the arraignment today of two Roxbury teens for that bus crash on Dudley Street.

Michael Anthony Baptista, who said he was on his way to a job fair, was released on personal recognizance. Felix Garcia was ordered held for violating bail conditions on unrelated larceny and assult charges.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office paints a different picture, saying in a statement:

Channel 4 reports Michael Baptista, 19, and Felix Garcia, 18, were arrested in connection with Monday's crash on Dudley Street.

Innocent, etc.

The MBTA has released excerpts from the radio call from the driver of the bus that crashed on Dudley Street yesterday, as well as a copy of a call from a passenger to 911:

Denies he attacked driver, Channel 5 reports.

Firefighters at the bus crash. Photo by BFD.

A driver's request that a teen put out a cigarette on an MBTA bus led to a fight that ended with the bus crashing into a building on Dudley Street and leaving a pedestrian with his foot pinned underneath a bus tire.

Police say the crash at 389 Dudley St., around 3:15 p.m., was caused by kids attacking the driver after he told one of them to stop smoking on the bus. The Boston Fire Department reports it had to use emergency air bags, jacks and the Jaws of Life to lift the bus off the man whose foot got pinned under the bus's right front tire.

Wouldn't you think there'd be more lucrative targets? In any case, Boston Police tweet that the Villa Sombrero Dollar Store, 543 Dudley St., was held up by somebody with a gun first thing this morning.

The Globe engages in some local community coverage! Some youth from Cape Verdean Community Unido were told by former Deputy Chief of Staff Kris Erickson not to portray the dark side of the Dudley Street community in their mural on the Fairmount bridge (owned by the MBTA) about the neighborhood's revitalization. The mural was based in large part on the youth's research of Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.

Their initial sketch depicted fires, the result of arson in the community. They were told that it was too violent, they said, and that a silhouette of a person pointing at the flames looked too much like a youth holding a gun, something many of them perceived as a hurtful stereotype.

So the youth came back with a written piece, and were told to strike over half a dozen "negative" words. Alosi has backtracked, slightly- the written version has been approved. Unfortunately, the program is essentially over for the summer, so it's a bit late, and the panel will probably remain blank.

Reading through the story, something sounds familiar:

In general, any filming, videotaping or photography that depicts the MBTA must not portray the Authority in a negative light. This includes, but is not limited to, violent content, sexual activity and assault. Furthermore, any attempt to portray public transportation as unsafe or dangerous in any way will not be permitted.

So much for my production, The Taking of Orange Line 123. Plot: TheZak hijacks an Orange Line train, demanding that the train be driven to Copley station and rambling over the radio about Boston Public Library, public records laws, and an frustrations at ordering small pizzas.

Starring protagonist boy-genius Kaz. Swrrlygrl uses a butterknife to make the Orange Line train fit on the Green Line tracks and performs open-heart surgery with a spoon on hero cop Pete Nice, who suffers a heart attack being overwhelmed with confusion trying to negotiate with TheZak. Ron Newman is the dispatcher who insists that, according to HIS systems, everything is fine. Adam works via a weak Wifi signal to collect and summarize the blog/LJ/Flickr/Twitter posts of everyone else on the train, while Steve Garfield's Nokia Wunderphone suffers a tragic death on the third rail, launched there by someone tired of being "video blogged".) Also on the train, Sam Yoon presents a ten-point proposal to extend MBTA operational hours, lower fares, decrease wait times, eliminate mechanical breakdowns, remove the T Smell, and solve world hunger. Michael Flaherty and the Dropkick Murphys play an MBTA SWAT Team, which plays "Shippin' Up To Boston", in hopes of killing hijackers who are sick to death of hearing the song.

Joseph Pesaturo stars in a brief one-line cameo: "Hijacked train? We're having signal problems."