DATE: AUGUST 11, 1999
ROUTE: BUSWAY LOCAL (A.K.A. route 31)
BUS#: 9342
I boarded the Local at the Cutler Ridge Mall to go up to the rail. The bus ran fine until it pulled into the SW 184 Street Busway station. After a passenger got off at the back door, the bus shudderred and stopped. The driver turned it on again, and he pulled out of the station to the red light at the intersection of 184 St. and the Busway, where it shut off again. He restarted it twice, each time it shudderred and then shut off. Finally the bus wouldn't even turn on, so the driver threw up his hands and said "That's it!". He gave us all transfers and the other passengers trooped back to the station and sat down. I considered continuing north, but my growling stomach overruled me, so I got on a southbound Local, 9331, and went back home.
DATE: MARCH 4, 1998
ROUTE: 73
BUS#: 1098
On this pleasant almost-spring morning, I was taking the 73 bus to class. The now-retired RTS was almost empty. Ridership tends to be pretty chinsy on the south end of the route, by Dadeland. This was the 9:33 AM Northbound trip. Not too long after it began rolling up SW 67 Ave. (Ludlam Road) things got interesting. An old lady (Cuban) and a middle aged lady (from Jamaica) began arguing over a seat. Keep in mind that the bus was nearly empty. Really.They were really going at it. The driver wisely chose to mind his own business, as did I and the other 2 or 3 people on the bus. Eventually they calmed down, and the Jamaican lady got off I think at SW 48 St. HUMOROUS FOOTNOTE: what they said to each other for the most part I've forgotten, but I remember the Jamaican lady told the Cuban lady to shut up- she said : "Shut up woman!!" Her thick accent made this sound hilarious. I wisely chose not to laugh.
DATE: SOMETIME IN FEBRUARY 1999
ROUTE: BUSWAY MAX (A.K.A. ROUTE 38)
BUS#: 9334
On this nice , cool evening, I was on the 5:47 PM MAX bus heading south to Florida City. The twilight was spectacular. The bus was crowded. I was heading directly from classes to my Aunt's coin laundry in Homestead. There was a lady (hereafter referred to as lady #1) sitting next to me, and another lady (lady #2) with a baby in the seat behind. Lady 1's baby began playing with lady 2's hair. This pi*sed lady 1 off. She angrily told lady 2 to control her baby. Angry words began to fly. Again, the driver wisely chose to mind his own business. I was afraid that fists might fly. And I was sitting next to lady 1. I clammed up and pretended to look out the window. Eventually they calmed down. Lady 1 got off at the SW 173 St. station. Lady and her baby were still on board when I got off on SW 304 St. This could've been a huge fight if it ever had gotten that far, 'cause lady 2 also had her husband and some relatives on board.
DATE: JUNE 11, 1998
ROUTE: 1
BUS#: 7011
This day was scorching hot - that humidity made it that you could almost swin in the air, by 3 PM it was straight up oppressive outside. I was coming down on the 2:35 PM route 1 bus. More like 2:45, that is. The driver was late coming from the garage to begin his first trip at Dadeland North. There were a lot of close calls all the way down the Busway with cars turning right off US1 against the red arrow at whichever intersection they were turning at, resulting in more than one instance in which the driver had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the nimrod in the car that's taking the red arrow (it's a real risk since the Busway runs parallel to, but seperate from, US-1.). I had to get off at the Cutler Ridge Mall Park N Ride, which is at the "Cutler Ridge Bus Terminal" (actually two poorly wired [at the time.] shelters across the street from each other.) ,which is on SW 211 Street at the south end of the mall and across from the South Dade Government Center, which also has a library, the Cutler Ridge precinct of the Miami-Dade Police (featured on the TV show "COPS")and a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue station. I keep my car there. The bus stopped, and as I was about to step out the front doors the bus was struck from behind by 2 cars. An SUV hit a car that was stopped behind the bus and the 2 went into the bus. Several of the other passengers on the bus, as well as the driver, got whiplash. The MDFR's fire engines quickly tore out of the station and across the street with sirens screaming. Really. It seems the lady driving the SUV didn't see the stopped car in front of her, nor did she see the bus. I think she was wacked out because she seemed too calm. The lady who drove the black car that got caught in between was OK, although her car was lost. The SUV had front end damage. And 7011 (substituting for 7048, in fact.) didn't get a scratch. I eventually calmed down and went home. LEGEND HAS IT that several of the people waiting for other buses at the shelter faked the cops out by pretending to have been hurt in the crash. The cops told then that they would be checked out by a doctor and if they were faking, they would be jailed. Quite a few left. I am not making this up!
DATE:APRIL 1998
ROUTE: 11
BUS#: 4009
In the aftermath of the controversial accident involving 7038 in the residential neighborhood near FIU, MDTA officials dissovled an explosive situation by removing the 11 bus from the area. For a while it actually had to make a u-turn on SW 114 Ave. a little below Flagler...114th is a 2 lane avenue. The 11 uses 60 foot Ikarus artics most of the time, making this difficult- the bus had to back up some, a 3 point turn, actually. Finally this poor routing resulted in this comical accident: 4009, going to FIU (I think) on a bright, sunny spring morning, tried to make the u-turn. The driver made a slight miscalculation, and the artic wound up striking a small tree (a sapling, actually). And the rear end wound up against a wall acrosss the street- the bus was actually blocking the entire street, stuck betwwen the tree and the wall. AARRRGGGHHH!!!! It remained there for a few hours until it was finally removed - the sapling was breifly pulled out, then replanted when the bus was moved out- it wasn't hurt a all. :)
