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 of the packed bus and entered through the back doors to tell the people who were smoking 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 in to 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 [expletive],’” he said. “The doors were still open. Some people started jumping off the bus. Everybody started screaming.”
The bus crashed against a building on Dudley Street and trapped a young man whose leg was pinned. Fire crews were able to free the man after about 40 minutes. Dozens of passersby watched and cheered when the man was wheeled to the ambulance.
The driver was also taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Police search for attackers
Transit police were searching yesterday for the group of young men who attacked the bus driver and forced the bus out of control.
There was no one in custody shortly after the crash and police were investigating whether the man pinned by the bus was one of the attackers.
Police also said there was no camera on the bus.
