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“Road Rage” Interrupts Charnee’s Ride Home
by Paul Bass | Feb 22, 2012 5:53 pm
(4) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Legal Writes, Transportation
Bus riders were heading home to Dixwell Avenue Wednesday afternoon when some guy driving a Honda got out of his car and started yelling and waving his arms. The bus ride ended then and there.
The delay occurred around 12:20 p.m.
This much both sides agreed on: The female driver of the D5 Dixwell Avenue bus was turning left onto Broadway from York Street. So was the male driver of the black Honda.
At that point, the stories diverge.
The driver cut the driver off, the driver claimed (both of them).
Several of the bus passengers said the man driving the Honda was at fault, not the woman driving the bus.
“He was all the way in the far lane he was supposed to go straight or turn right [onto Elm],” then made a last-second switch to turn left, said a passenger who said his name is Buddy.
“He was behind her. He made a left. He came,” said passenger Charnee Hoover, who was on her way home to Dixwell from the APT Foundation, “like he was going to make a right turn. He made a sudden different turn. He was trying to pass her. But he was on the wrong side. He was speeding also. I saw everything!”
The bus pulled up to the stop outside Gourmet Heaven. The Honda’s driver pulled in front and stopped, too, then got out of the car.
“He had road rage! He was yelling. He was cussing,” said Hoover.
The driver flagged down Yale bicycle patrol cop Alex Rivera, who put a “road rage” report out over the police radio. City cops arrived, including Officer Jeffrey Fletcher (pictured subsequently interviewing the Honda driver).
Fletcher informed both drivers that he would not issue any infractions. He told the Honda driver he could file a complaint with CT Transit if he chooses. He said he would.
“She drives a CT Transit bus! She has the lives of drivers on the line as well as the passengers on her bus. This was something that was totally reckless,” the Honda driver told him.
“He feels as though he wants the right to make a complaint [to the company],” Fletcher then informed the bus driver.
“I never gave him the finger. I never cussed him. He can do whatever he wants,” she responded.
A CT Transit supervisor showed up, too. Like the bus driver, he declined to comment because of the company’s strict no-comment policy. He said he had no idea who from the company could give a formal response. “You trying to get me fired?” he asked.
Meanwhile, the bus sat still. Fifteen minutes later, another D5 bus pulled up. The passengers filed out of the first bus, onto the second.
“Ryan” Was No Cop
In other police news, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman (with his words in quotation marks):
Somebody got fooled on Whitney Avenue Tuesday night. Fooled, and ripped off.
It happened around 10 p.m. Two people were inside their apartment “working on some music” when two men entered the apartment through the unlocked back door. The resident said he recognized one of the men as ‘Ryan,’ adding he’d been to his apartment a few times before and knew him
from their involvement in the Occupy New Haven movement.
“‘Ryan’ told the victim he needed to talk with him and walked outside with his accomplice. The victim and friends also walked outside. They walked a female friend to her car and said their good-byes They saw ‘Ryan’ and his accomplice standing by a car - possibly a four door sedan. The four men reentered the apartment, when ‘Ryan’ announced they were undercover police officers. The victims were ordered to lie on the floor, face down
with their fingers interlocked behind their heads.”
“Ryan” and friend took wallets and a mobile phone from the victims’ pockets, as well as a “Rubber-maid container containing his marijuana and a
Sentry Firebox Safe containing cash, from his desk.”
Then “Ryan” said to “remain on the floor” until he returned “or face being charged with interfering with police officers.”
So the victims lay there for 20 minutes until two friends “came by and asked what they were doing, lying on the floor.”
Aha! It hit the victims: We’ve been robbed!
So they called the cops, who are now looking for “Ryan” and his accomplice.”
Some of the campers at Occupy New Haven Wednesday afternoon said they hadn’t seen Ryan, who is said to hail from Norwalk and practice pacifism.
Post a Comment
Comments
posted by: MikeM on February 23, 2012 9:24am
I see aggressive drivers trying to get around buses every single day. Its a similar thing with trucks on the highway and nine out of ten times the drivers of the small vehicles just need to chill out and try to understand why the professional drivers are doing what they are doing. These professional drivers are driving HUGE vehicles on city streets designed for horse and buggies, they need extra space.
posted by: streever on February 24, 2012 11:02am
MikeM
I feel the same way about other drivers as the driver of a very small vehicle—a bicycle—and a walker. Nine times out of ten I’m “hogging” the lane because the side lane is full of glass, holes, large rocks, dog walkers, doors opening into me, etc. I try to move out of the way of a car as quickly as possible—literally the second that I can SAFELY do so—and find it frustrating that drivers act like I’m a road block.
The same drivers are always at the next red light with me, so it is more than a bit silly—one really has to question if they can’t just slow down a little and relax. We all get to the same places in roughly the same time around New Haven. Isn’t it better to get there safely?
posted by: MikeM on February 24, 2012 12:07pm
Streever- I cant imagine riding a bicycle on the streets of New Haven, I certainly am too scared to trust my back to many of the drivers in this town. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the city crack down on speeding at some point? I used to commute on a bike 20 years ago in another town(much safer traffic, bigger city) and I fully agree that it is a bit ironic that you almost always end up at the same stoplights as the cars that are so anxious to get around you. I personally don’t get the whole road biking for fun craze these days as we steadily have more and more distracted drivers on the roads at the same time, it must be a sort of an “extreme” sport thrill ?
posted by: streever on February 24, 2012 3:32pm
MikeM
It can be terrifying at times—mostly, you just pretend that they are not there :).
Typically, despite the insane driving, I feel pretty safe in New Haven. I feel like the health benefits of becoming a cycling commuter (lost almost 30 pounds, got so much healthier/fitter and dropped my resting heart rate by about half) are going to extend my life dramatically.
