Bus driver refuses ticket, hits meter maid

• Tweet

BOSTON, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- A bus driver was charged with assault and battery for striking a meter maid who attempted to deliver a parking ticket at a red light, Boston police said.

Boston Transportation Department Commissioner Thomas J. Tinlin told the Boston Herald a city parking enforcement supervisor pulled up to bus driver Lataria Milton at a stoplight to deliver a parking ticket Milton had refused to accept moments before.

"She gave this driver two (verbal) opportunities to move on her way and the driver just brushed her off," Tinlin said.

"The bus was parked like they do every routine day. If they can't park on one side, they park on the other," witness Melvin Matias told the newspaper. "The meter maid, I guess, was giving the bus driver a ticket. All of a sudden she rolled out and then the meter maid followed her. They were side by side. The bus went toward her, cutting her off -- vroom, like she had the gas on. I don't know why she didn't stop."

The bus caused damage to three other vehicles stopped in front of it.

Matias said the bus "was dragging" the parking enforcement minivan and "just kept going, hitting the other cars. The other cars had their brakes on, trying to stop, but the bus just kept pushing them."

Boston Police Superintendent William Evans said multiple video cameras in the area of the busy intersection should provide more information.

Milton, 34, a 10-year veteran of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, was questioned by police and taken for mandatory drug and alcohol testing. An arraignment was scheduled for Friday in Roxbury District Court, The Boston Globe reported.