Los Angeles bus driver killed by tow truck driver

A bus driver for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) was killed in downtown Los Angeles when a flatbed tow truck traveling at sixty miles per hour ran a red light at Broadway and slammed into her. The collision tore open the front of the bus. It also sheared off a fire hydrant and destroyed the front of a nearby 7-Eleven store. There were no passengers on the bus at the time of the crash.

The collision occurred at 5:10 a.m. on June 12 when the bus driver was headed west on 5th Street. She died at the hospital hours after the crash. The tow truck driver was reported to be in critical condition at a local hospital.

The bus driver, who was 47 years old, immigrated to the United States from Mexico over twenty years ago. She was a mother and grandmother. She had worked for the MTA for 13 years. Her husband and daughter also worked for the MTA. According to her supervisor, she had been given the opportunity to become a manager, but chose to remain a driver on the pre-dawn downtown Los Angeles route so that she could help care for her grandchild so that her daughter would not have to put him in daycare.

According to her co-workers, the driver, a devout Catholic, sat alone in her bus for a few minutes every morning before she began her route praying for her family, her fellow employees, and her passengers. Many of those passengers were fiercely loyal to her. According to her family, she usually carried a cross in her pocket and kept rosary beads within reach. However, the morning she died, she had left both at home on her nightstand.

The bus driver’s family is planning to file suit against the tow truck driver. It is always best under these circumstances to hire a law firm that specializes in car accidents and other vehicular crashes to ensure that the culpable party is held responsible.

Source:  Los Angeles Times, “MTA bus driver killed in crash ‘looked after everyone else first’” Laura J. Nelson, Jun. 15, 2013