Putting the B46 at the top of the list, MTA asks cops to crack down on fare evasions in Brooklyn. On Wednesday, a rookie cop assigned to stop fare-beaters on that bus was shot in the leg. According to an MTA estimate, it loses $50 million every year from bus riders who don’t pay fares.
The main spot for crime on the most dangerous bus route in the city is at the same Brooklyn stop where an ex-con travelled in the bus without paying and then shot a rookie cop.
According to officials, the worst bus in the city is the B46 that runs through parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and East Flatbush. The distinction is based on fare evasion, assaults on drivers and passengers and many other factors.
Law enforcement sources said that when transit officials asked the NYPD to crack down on fare evasion in Brooklyn, the B46 was at number one.
In 2013, there have been forty one assaults on B46 drivers and riders which is more than any other route, according to the MTA officials.
On Wednesday at about 5 p.m., Officer James Li, who has been on the force for just 2 months, was wounded by a suspected fare-beater at Utica Ave. and Empire Blvd. Police said that the rookie cop was assigned to an NYPD crackdown on fare evasion when Rashun Robinson got off the B46 and shot him. He was shot in the leg next to a White Castle on Utica Ave. and Empire Blvd. in Crown Heights.
In December 2008, Edwin Thomas, a driver on the same route, was stabbed to death by an ex-con fare-beater.
According to the MTA estimate, the bus loses about $50 million a year due to bus riders who don’t pay the fare and travel in the bus.
