News

Driver in T bus crash has driver's license revoked, suspended without pay

BOSTON, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com/AP) -- The driver of an MBTA bus that crashed into a guard rail over the Mass. Pike has had her license revoked and she has been suspended without pay, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation confirmed on Wednesday.

Shanna Shaw's license was revoked pursuant to a provision in Massachusetts law that allows a person's driver's license to be revoked if that person is seen as an "imminent threat" on the road. She was also suspended without pay from her job.

She faces arraignment on an obstruction of justice charge in Newton District Court on May 27.

The driver, Shaw, 42, told investigators after the crash at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday that she was being bothered by allergies and a sneezing fit caused her to close her eyes, fall to the floor and lose control of the bus, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority report said.

But investigators who reviewed video surveillance from the bus said Shaw "had an item in her left hand, consistent in size and shape, with a cellular telephone."

One wheel of the bus was hanging over the highway in Newton, outside Boston, but police said it was never in danger of falling. Shaw and seven of the nine passengers on board received medical treatment.

Shaw at first said she did not have a phone, but an investigator heard a phone ring in her purse at the hospital, and she later admitted that she did, the report said. MBTA bus drivers as well as trolley and train operators are barred from carrying cellphones on the job.

Shaw is charged with obstruction of justice, operating to endanger, speeding and impeded operation.