A dramatic and frightening scene played out for some T bus riders in Roxbury yesterday afternoon when a driver was attacked and a man became pinned by the bus after it crashed.
The incident started just after 3 p.m. when the Route 15 driver stopped the bus traveling along Dudley Street because he smelled cigarette smoke, according to a passenger.
The driver got off the packed bus and entered through the back doors to tell the smoker to get off.
When no one moved, the driver said the bus wouldn’t move until the smoker got off, and that’s when the young men and the driver got into a verbal argument, said Dee, the passenger who would only give his first name.
The group of about four or five young men began to move, and the driver returned to the front of the bus. The group followed and began arguing with the driver through the front door.
That’s when they jumped on and started to attack the driver, said Dee.
“The bus started rolling forward. I was like, ‘Oh s—,’” he said. “The doors were still open. Some people started jumping off the bus. Everybody started screaming.”
The bus crashed against a Dudley Street building and pinned a young man’s leg. Fire crews were able to free the man after about 40 minutes. Dozens of onlookers cheered when the man was wheeled to the ambulance.
The driver was also taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
