Broadway property owner questions school bus driver’s conduct after hit-and-run fence crash

By The Advocate

A Massachusetts physician and Broadway property owner is calling on city officials to identify a school bus driver accused of leaving the scene after a bus struck and damaged a fence on his property last month. In a letter dated May 17 to Mayor Patrick M. Keefe Jr. and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Dianne Kelly, Dr. Randall S. Bock said a school bus owned by Eastern Bus Company of Somerville hit a fence at his Revere property, which is located beside 354 Broadway, on April 17 at about 12:50 p.m. and then drove away without stopping. Bock said the incident was captured on video and identified the vehicle as a bus bearing Mass. license plate 44277.

“The damaged fence is the least important fact,” Bock wrote, arguing that the driver’s decision to leave the scene raises broader questions about judgment and responsibility for someone entrusted with transporting children.

According to the letter, Bock alleges the driver failed to identify himself, leave notice or report the incident. He characterized the conduct as leaving the scene of property damage under Massachusetts law. Eastern Bus Company and its insurer, Philadelphia Insurance Companies, have not addressed his questions in writing, Bock said.

Bock said he filed complaints with the Mass. Registry of Motor Vehicles’ School Pupil Transportation Unit, the Mass. Dept. of Public Utilities and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. He also said he filed a police report with the Revere Police Dept. and prepared an application for a criminal complaint in Chelsea District Court.

The physician asked city officials whether Revere Public Schools currently contracts with Eastern Bus Company for transportation services and whether the district would seek the identity of the driver operating the bus at the time of the incident. He also asked whether the driver is still transporting students and what standards the district applies when a transportation vendor’s driver allegedly leaves the scene of a documented incident involving a school bus.

“I have no personal financial interest in the answers,” Bock wrote. “The fence is repaired and that question is being addressed through other channels.”

Instead, he said, his concern is whether “a person who runs from a stationary fence” should continue driving children.

In a telephone interview with Mayor Patrick Keefe, Jr., who stated, “Eastern Bus Company does not have a contract with the City of Revere and Revere Public Schools.”

Eastern Bus Company did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.