A Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee struck and killed a pit bull while behind the wheel of a city bus on Church Avenue after the dog darted into the street, according to the animal’s owner.
“He ran right over him,” said Jose Rivera. “[The bus driver] said he didn’t see him.”
Rivera said he was about to take 2-year-old Rasco to the vet for treatment to an ear infection on Aug. 15 when the pooch blew past him at 11:49 am as he picked the good boy up from his makeshift home — a tractor-trailer parked at a Church Avenue truck-rental company’s lot between Chester Avenue and Story Street on the Kensington–Borough Park border.
Rasco then ran past the open gate guarding the lot and into the street as the driver aboard a B35 bus pulled into a nearby stop and rolled over the dog as his helpless owner watched from the sidewalk.
“I saw with my own eyes and yelled ‘Rasco stop!’ But he just dodged out and the bus hit on him the side,” said Rivera.
Officers in the Police Department’s emergency-service unit responded to the incident, and cops later ruled the fatal crash an accident, issuing no violations, according to authorities, who noted Rasco was off leash at the time the bus hit him.
Following the crash, Rivera took his beloved companion’s body to Pet Haven Animal Hospital in Ditmas Park, where he had the remains cremated, he said.
“It’s the dog that keeps me company, you know,” Rivera said. “He’s what keeps me going. When you loose something, it messes you up.”
