ART bus hits 2nd person in less than 24 hours
Police: Man appeared to be jaywalking 50 yards from crosswalk
An Albuquerque Rapid Transit bus hit and injured a man Wednesday afternoon outside the University of New Mexico. The incident comes less than 24 hours after an ART bus ran over a woman, killing her, in the same area.
Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque
Police Department spokesman, said the man was “apparently jaywalking” when he walked into the path of an eastbound ART bus around noon on Central, near Buena Vista.
“The male pedestrian appeared to be jaywalking when he crossed Central,” he said. “The nearest crosswalk was about 50 yards from the point where the male stepped in front of the bus.”
Gallegos said the man was taken to a hospital to be treated for his injuries.
The man was seen being taken away in an ambulance as passengers departed the bus. Part of its windshield was shattered.
One of the passengers, a woman who went by Rachel, said it will be her last time riding ART.
“I tell you I will never get on that bus again,” she said.
The woman said she had just left the hospital and was going to wait for the Central bus, but decided to take ART to get home faster.
“Well, that was a mistake,” she said.
Rachel said she didn’t think it was the driver’s fault and the man walked into the bus lane. She said that when the driver slammed on the brakes, she was thrown forward and pinned between the row of seats.
“Thank God I wasn’t hurt that I’m aware of yet,” she said. “I refused to go to the hospital, I just got out of the hospital.”
Rachel said she has tried to be supportive of the ART system, but with Tuesday night’s fatal crash and the one on Wednesday, she’s losing faith.
“Not after today … that did it for me, I’m sorry,” she said. “I know they really tried, the buses are beautiful and all that, but people said from the beginning that going down the middle of the street was not a good idea.”
The incident less than 24 hours after a woman was run over by an ART bus just down the street.
In that accident, police say that, around 7:30 p.m., a woman described as being in her 20s was causing a commotion in the middle of Central near Maple before she rolled into the eastbound lanes in front of an ART bus.
The woman was run over and pronounced dead at the scene.
The two incidents mark the first times an ART bus has hit a pedestrian. Since starting service on Nov. 30, ART buses have been in at least 11 crashes with vehicles, including two driven by APD officers.
At least two of those crashes resulted in the ART bus being sidelined for repairs. None resulted in serious injuries.