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Teen Flies Into Rage When Bus Driver Won't Let Dog Onboard
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 22, 2011
Modified Jun 22, 2011
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via NY1
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 22, 2011
Modified Jun 22, 2011
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A Bronx teen flew off the handle yesterday when a bus driver wouldn't allow her to get on board with her dog. Driver Marlene Bien-Aime told 17-year-old Steangeli Medina she couldn't carry her dog in her jacket when she tried to board the Bx9 on Fordham road yesterday. That's when Medina lost it: "She punched the driver in the face. She then drags her off the bus by her hair...where she punched and kicked her repeatedly about the body," a source told the News.
Bien-Aime was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital with a black eye, facial cuts, and chest injuries; Medina was charged with assault, menacing and harassment. And during the fracas, the Post says the dog disappeared! Could it be homeward bound?
According to the MTA, small domestic pets are only permitted on subways, NYC Transit and MTA buses if they are in kennels or similar small containers that "can be accommodated by you on your lap without annoyance to other passengers."
Frank Austin, a vice chairman of Transport Workers Union Local 100, was appalled by the attack: "The bus driver was doing her job, enforcing the rules, and was assaulted while performing her duties, for no apparent reason." This incident is a far cry from another bus/dog confrontation from the spring, when a Brooklyn woman got so enraged when her B74 bus driver swerved to avoid hitting a dog, she pummeled him while screaming, "You should have fucking killed the dog."
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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