Bus Driver 'Blacked Out' After He Was Attacked By Passenger In Randolph
RANDOLPH (CBS) – Cell phone video showed the moment an angry passenger attacked a bus driver, causing a crash in Randolph Monday night.
The bus ended up wedged up against a utility pole on Route 28, but before it hit the pole, it hit a car turning onto Liberty Street. A total of 16 people were hurt.
"I don't even know when I hit the Honda and the pole," bus driver Denis Pierre said in a phone interview with WBZ-TV. He has a swollen face and trouble chewing.
Randolph police say passenger 24-year-old Matthew Young punched the Brockton Area Transit bus driver in the head causing him to black out. Another passenger recorded the whole incident on video.
Pierre says Young was upset because he wouldn't pull the bus over. The BAT bus has limited stops from Dorchester to Brockton.
"I'm driving and the next thing I knew that he punched. I just blacked out for a couple of minutes," Pierre said.
The driver of the Honda was only a half mile from home when the BAT bus hit.
"It was just like a nightmare," the driver, who did not want to be identified, told WBZ. "Everything happened in an instant I was like 'Oh my God, what is going on?'"
The driver and her elderly mother spent hours at the hospital following the crash. "If you ask me it was awful, it was ridiculous," she said. "It was just awful."
Young was arraigned on several charges Tuesday including assault and battery resulting in serious bodily injury. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
The bus drivers' union would like protective shields put in for their drivers. Meanwhile, Pierre says he won't be back on the road until his face is healed.