MBTA leaders have launched a new "fatigue awareness campaign" targeting the transit agency's bus operators amid a recent spike in dangerous incidents involving buses around Greater Boston.
Last month, an MBTA bus crashed into several parked cars and two homes in Medford. The incident occurred at the intersection of Madison Street and Playstead Road just before 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning.
The crash is still under investigation, according to the T's Chief Safety Officer Tim Lesniak. Transit police said in the aftermath of the incident that the bus' operator showed signs of being drowsy or asleep before the crash. They said the driver had been suspended and that criminal charges were warranted.
The Medford crash was one of 15 "major safety events" that occurred on the T's bus network in March, Lesniak said during an MBTA Board meeting Thursday. Such events include deaths, injuries, property damage, evacuations, and collisions, according to the Federal Transit Administration. Lesniak told board members that of the 15 dangerous incidents last month, a total of eight were collisions, five with vehicles, two with pedestrians and one with a home.
The large number of safety events on the T's bus system this month marks a 77% percent increase when compared to the same month last year, according to data shared during Thursday's meeting. That jump stands in sharp contrast with safety improvements on other parts of the MBTA system, including subway and trolley lines, where the number of dangerous incidents has steadily declined as the agency has conducted major safety upgrades over the past several years.
In response to the recent incidents, Lesniak told board members that the T's bus safety team developed a new fatigue awareness campaign that involved visits to every MBTA bus garage in April. During those visits, he said, T officials spoke with bus operators about "fatigue awareness, education on hazards surrounding fatigue and how we can mitigate those hazards" and "provided resources for employees on where to go and what to do should they be experiencing fatigue and need to flag it to their supervisor."
Over the past month, the agency has engaged with 750 bus drivers about how to deal with fatigue on the job, Lesniak said. He told the board that the agency also sent out an email blast to the entire agency about fatigue awareness in response to the incidents.
"We're still working through investigations," Lesniak said. "But we felt it was important to push out this fatigue awareness campaign."
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