Nine injured after irate passenger crashes bus (Seattle)

[icymist]

Nine injured after irate passenger crashes bus

By Jessica Blanchard
Seattle Times staff reporter

Nine people were injured yesterday morning after an angry passenger on a Metro bus wrested control of the steering wheel away from the driver and crashed the bus along Aurora Avenue North.
Police and witnesses said the man boarded the southbound 358 Express bus at North 85th Street shortly after 10:30 a.m. and began arguing with the driver over whether his bus pass had expired.

The driver, who had already pulled the bus away from the bus stop, repeatedly told the man to sit down. The man refused and kept yelling for the driver to let him off the bus.

The man then made a grab for the wheel to force the bus toward the curb. During their struggle, which lasted about a block, the bus rammed into a tree and knocked down a utility pole, coming to rest halfway into the intersection of North 80th Street and Aurora Avenue North, police said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002082759_buscrash05m.html

[RPM]

1. Will be charged under the PATRIOT Act...

Provision in there against attacking driver/pilot of mass transportation including, airplanes, busses, trains, etc.

Have fun in GITMO

[drunkdriver-in-chief]

7. Nah - this was just a "tragic accident"

No matter how much mayhem you cause with a motor vehicle, it's always just an accident and all's forgiven.

[RPM]

8. yeah....

but that applies only if you are a drug-dealing, chain-smoking ex-librarian who has been born-again and married into the most crooked family ever; I dont think this guy fits that bill.

[WI_DEM]

2. That nut is in some big time trouble

[DrWeird]

3. This happened a few years ago and the bus....

ended up driving off a bridge, falling several stories, and landing on a house. Several people were killed if I remember correctly. Seattle Buses are a who's who of the criminally insane. You'd think they'd do something about this.

[icymist]

4. That guy shot and killed the bus driver.

He was the only fatality in the 1998 incident. This is the same bus route after being renamed from route '6'.

[DS1]

5. I'd have run up from the back so f*ckin fast he'd have been knocked

out the front windsheild.

Damn, I hope he gets a lot of time in prison for this.

[Journeyman]

6. Another measure of how far we've come these past three years. . .

Back in late 2001, early 2002, when a similar incident happened down South, there was a great deal of speculation -- on this board, and in the press -- on whether or not the perp was a "terrorist." Now we consign a story like this to the category of "nut run amok" and get on about our business. . . as it should be.