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Driver killed on Brooklyn bus

by Benjamin Kabak

A passenger on the B46 who refused to pay his fare and was denied a transfer stabbed the driver to death, CityRoom reports. Edwin Thomas was pronounced dead this afternoon, and this shocking murder is sure to raise concerns about the safety of bus drivers who are lefty very exposed to the whims of their passengers. The B46 features the highest rate of fare evasion of all the city’s buses.

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9 comments

thedailycommuter December 1, 2008 - 11:47 pm

that is awful! i hope they caught that bastard!! so senseless.

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Alfred Beech December 2, 2008 - 12:24 pm

Wow. The Times article says that bus drivers are instructed not to confront passengers that don’t pay. That makes fare evasion pretty easy.

I’m shocked that someone would kill a bus driver who wouldn’t hand him a transfer after he didn’t pay. The Times article said this was the first murder of an on-duty bus driver since 1981, so luckily such incidents are rare.

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Benjamin Kabak December 2, 2008 - 12:26 pm

Clearly, this murdered is more than a little unhinged. That’s for sure.

Fare enforcement on buses is necessarily weak. It’s a flaw but what are you going to do? Driver safety is paramount.

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Alfred Beech December 2, 2008 - 5:15 pm

Necessarily weak? The Times reports that there are 2,000 MTA security guards who work the subway system, in part to catch fare evaders, but that there are have been no guards specifically assigned to buses. It sounds as if the MTA has been running on the honor system. I wonder how much money the system has been loosing on bus fare evasion.

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JoshP December 2, 2008 - 6:47 pm

Security guards, or transit police? A radio and a funny hat is not an effective deterrent to the mentally ill and imminently violent.

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Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog » Blog Archive » » After murder, a bus driver partition pilot program December 23, 2008 - 12:30 pm

[…] the recent murder of an MTA bus driver — the first since 1981 — the MTA is going to begin a bus partition pilot program. Ideally, the […]

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To protect drivers, bus partitions :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog November 13, 2009 - 1:03 pm

[…] one year, Edwin Thomas, a driver along the B46 bus route, was fatally stabbed by a passenger who refused to pay the fare. Three weeks later, the MTA announced plans to start a […]

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Transit begins bus partition trial program :: Second Ave. Sagas | A New York City Subway Blog January 4, 2010 - 12:01 pm

[…] a New York City Transit bus driver was murdered by an irate passenger in Dec. 2008, the MTA promised a bus partition pilot program aimed at keeping drivers safer. Late […]

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Adding cameras to better protect bus drivers :: Second Ave. Sagas December 13, 2010 - 3:10 pm

[…] two years, Edwin Thomas, a bus driver along the B46, was stabbed to death by a passenger who refused to pay his fare. It took over a year for the MTA to being a driver […]

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