Cars being driven at high speeds and running red lights have smashed into two Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) buses in the last few days, killing the car driver or a car passenger in each case, and injuring several people on the two buses.
One crash, involving a diesel-powered bus, took place on April 18 in evening at 35th and Capitol. The second crash, involving a newer battery-electric bus on the MCTS high-profile Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line occurred on April 20 in evening at 35th and Wisconsin.
Outside the transit system maintenance facility on Wednesday, April 24, Maintenance Director Dwyane Reese pointed to the extremely dented but not split-open left side of the battery-electric bus and praised the bus' construction.
“I would say the steel framing of the bus, saved the passengers’ lives. Looking at the video, the car made contact with the bus and bounced off of the bus. The car did not go through the bus, thank God," Reese says.
But add Transit System President and Managing Director Denise Wandke to the list of local officials and residents calling for a reduction in reckless driving. Wandke says bus drivers are already being advised to drive defensively and not quickly accelerate when a stoplight turns green.
“We just have to continue to get the message out that green doesn’t necessarily mean go all the time. We really have to take a pause, like anyone else in an automobile. I think we’re all learning that as we travel down the streets. You just don’t go when it’s green. You kinda always gotta look," Wandke, a former bus driver, says.
Wandke says it isn’t clear what sort of insurance help the county will get to repair or replace the $1.6 million battery electric bus, which the system touts as a cleaner mode of transportation, and the county is looking at getting federal help to obtain more buses for a possible north-south BRT along 27th Street.
Wandke says if the system’s insurance company deems the battery-powered bus needs to be replaced, it could take a while.
“It takes about two years. From the day we award a contract to the actual build. They have to be American-made. So, there’s only a few plants that will make it, especially these," Wandke says.
Wandke says for now, a diesel-powered bus is replacing the electric bus on the East-West BRT, also known as Connect. She says the older diesel-bus severely damaged at 35th and Capitol won’t be back on the streets. Replacing that bus could cost $400,000.
