A recent CTA bus crash is being blamed on an unruly passenger who allegedly punched the bus driver and caused him to veer into a parked car. The CTA bus accident happened Monday afternoon shortly before 3:30 p.m. on the 3400 block of West Montrose Avenue. The bus was in motion at the time of the attack and at least some passengers witnessed the beating.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the driver suffered numerous personal injuries including abrasions to his head and injuries to his back and right shoulder. The 30-year-old passenger who attacked the bus driver was arrested and charged with aggravated battery.
A passenger who witnessed the attack flagged down police officers to help. The Chicago Tribune reports that when officers arrived one of the bystanders had already subdued the assailant.
None of the reports indicate why the passenger started beating the bus driver.
Earlier in 2012 four youths were arrested for disabling a CTA bus and then beating and mugging its passengers. The incident happened on the South Side. Two of the muggers were 17-year-olds and the other two were age 13. A union spokesperson said that the bus driver in that case was uninjured, but some of the passengers did suffer personal injuries.
The youths were able to disable the bus by flipping a control switch. It is unclear whether the CTA will modify its bus designs to prevent similar attacks in the future.