Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses

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Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by Gold_12TH on Sun Apr 29 13:37:41 2012 edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Next stop: danger! Rowdy kids are disabling city buses by flipping an unlocked “kill switch” — a terrifying trend that drivers told The Post is accelerating. “It’s a growing problem. It happens every day,” said Frank Austin, Bronx Division chairman of Transport Workers Union Local 100. One rider told The Post her S46 bus was stopped three times on one trip by vandals on Castleton Avenue on Staten Island. “It was a scary thing to know that kids could shut it off,” she recalled of the March incident. She said about six teens descended on the slow-moving vehicle, flipped the switch and forced it to a dead halt. The driver went outside to restart it. The wolf pack then flipped the switch twice more before the bus could get rolling again, forcing the driver outside each time to restart it. By then, the rider said, she was too scared to remain on board, so she got off the bus. “Why does the switch have to be . . . where the public can interfere?” she said. “Suppose there’s a bad situation? What do you do then?” The Post is not publishing photos of the kill switch or revealing its location or labeling in the interest of public safety. Last summer, driver Tomar Lang’s Bx15 was stopped at a red light at 168th Street in The Bronx when five teens riding skateboards and bicycles approached. They waited for the bus to move before they triggered the cutoff. “It made people lunge forward and backwards, and the bus came to a complete stop. I was frightened. I didn’t know a bus could just shut off like that,” Lang said. About 2,027 of the MTA’s natural-gas and electric/diesel hybrid buses are equipped with the switch, designed to kill engine and battery power in the event of a fire. A total of 892 have been retroactively fitted with locks, at about $200 a pop. The rest remain at risk, drivers said. “We became aware that buses had become vulnerable to this activity several years ago, and we’ve been trying since then to remedy it, starting first in the area where most prevalent,” MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said. All new buses entering the fleet will have locked switches. A veteran bus driver thinks the MTA made the switch’s location too obvious. “The MTA is backwards. No one is supposed to know about the switch — but if you print instructions . . . who are you hiding it from?” the driver said. “It’s a simple thing that can be taken care of,” said a 29-year bus driver in Downtown Brooklyn who has been victimized. “But you’re talking about the MTA. They don’t do anything unless they have to.” Chicago transit officials have grappled with similar problems. In January, four teens were arrested after disabling the power on a bus and then beating and robbing passengers. The city now locks its switches. ---http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/punks_switch_buses_into_sitting_9JljiF2OCgXpIWezX5suxI#ixzz1tS5gpvvQ
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by The Flxible Neofan* on Sun Apr 29 14:21:29 2012, in response to Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Gold_12TH on Sun Apr 29 13:37:41 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Really disturbing but I'm glad something is being done about it. With all this hoopla about terrorism and homeland security one would think they would have discovered this issue before the kids did.
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by Train2104* on Sun Apr 29 14:46:37 2012, in response to Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Gold_12TH on Sun Apr 29 13:37:41 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d If the switch is locked what will people do in a fire? This is like the emergency brake cord on the subway.
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by monorail* on Sun Apr 29 15:29:50 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Train2104 on Sun Apr 29 14:46:37 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d 'This is like the emergency brake cord on the subway. it's about time that buses get to have the same fun that t/o's & c/r's had during the '70's & '80's....
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by BigBusDriver* on Sun Apr 29 16:48:26 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by monorail on Sun Apr 29 15:29:50 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d it's about time that buses get to have the same fun that t/o's & c/r's had during the '70's & '80's.... We've already had it. You forget about the rear door being pushed on and the interlock engaging, stopping the bus in its tracks. STILL LOL@MTA AND 'TECHNOLOGY' SAFETY ITEMS
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by AMoreira81* on Sun Apr 29 16:59:15 2012, in response to Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Gold_12TH on Sun Apr 29 13:37:41 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d In certain areas, the police should simply have unmarked cars on lookout and if they catch any in the act, arrest them and then turn them over to the feds for processing on federal terrorism charges. Alternatively, bus service should be denied to the area if the community can't get its punks under control.
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by BusMgr* on Sun Apr 29 17:15:40 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Train2104 on Sun Apr 29 14:46:37 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by RiverLINE3501* on Sun Apr 29 17:22:59 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by AMoreira81 on Sun Apr 29 16:59:15 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d That would violate Federal Title VI[?] regulations. You would deny people their civil rights because of actions of a few wayward youths?
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by monorail* on Sun Apr 29 17:38:43 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by BigBusDriver on Sun Apr 29 16:48:26 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d 'stopping the bus in its tracks.' where are the bus' tracks?
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by monorail* on Sun Apr 29 17:39:41 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Train2104 on Sun Apr 29 14:46:37 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d 'If the switch is locked what will people do in a fire?' marshmallows?
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by RailBus63* on Sun Apr 29 20:08:46 2012, in response to Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Gold_12TH on Sun Apr 29 13:37:41 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Nothing like broadcasting this to the entire city.
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by checkmatechamp13* on Sun Apr 29 20:56:27 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by RailBus63 on Sun Apr 29 20:08:46 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Eh, at least they didn't tell everybody where the actual switch was.
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by Gold_12TH* on Sun Apr 29 21:20:41 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by RailBus63 on Sun Apr 29 20:08:46 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d or to the world.
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by Newkirk Plaza David* on Mon Apr 30 13:39:20 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by AMoreira81 on Sun Apr 29 16:59:15 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Alternatively, bus service should be denied to the area if the community can't get its punks under control. You don't mind losing B6/13/82/83/BM5/Q8 bus service to your 'hood then, don't you? Have a nice walk to the L or 3 train. :-)
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by BrooklynBus* on Mon Apr 30 14:46:31 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by RiverLINE3501 on Sun Apr 29 17:22:59 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d That's what happened on Halloween 2010. MTA halted the B31 bus route because of Halloween mischief in Gerritsen Beach.
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by G1Ravage* on Mon Apr 30 19:38:53 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Train2104 on Sun Apr 29 14:46:37 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d People will DIE IN A FIRE.
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by mr mabstoa* on Mon Apr 30 21:31:45 2012, in response to Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Gold_12TH on Sun Apr 29 13:37:41 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d I think they should hire these kids to fix the buses!
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by Hank EisenStein* on Tue May 1 17:02:24 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by checkmatechamp13 on Sun Apr 29 20:56:27 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Under the door labeled 'Fuel Cut-Off'...
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Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses
Posted by AMoreira81* on Wed May 2 00:04:44 2012, in response to Re: Punks use ‘kill switches’ to disable MTA buses, posted by Newkirk Plaza David on Mon Apr 30 13:39:20 2012.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailB:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d The subway is close enough that I could walk. If service were denied, the community would start turning in their punks en masse. If I ran the MTA, I would do just that---short-turn them before the hood, or not run the route, and tell the community why...and stand my ground.
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