Bus Passengers

A man and woman were shot Thursday while riding a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus in Watts, authorities said. The 30-year-old man was shot in the thigh and was taken to St. Francis Medical Center and listed in stable condition, police said. The woman, believed to be in her 30s, suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen and was listed in fair condition to Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, authorities said.

A school bus and a passenger bus collided in St. Louis, sending them crashing onto the grounds of a historic courthouse and injuring three adults and about a dozen children. A man walking his dog was struck and was in critical condition; his dog was killed. Both bus drivers also were injured. The injured children appeared to suffer mostly cuts and bruises. Paramedics initially treated them in the lobby of a bank near the accident scene.

With a load of riders on board, a bus driver was hit over the head with a bottle Monday night by an irate passenger, police said. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority driver had picked up the passenger about 9:20 p.m. at Tujunga Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard, said Gary Wosk, spokesman for the agency. The passenger, Ruben Gonzalez, refused to pay his fare, said Police Sgt. Gary Patton.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is launching a flash card program to help blind bus riders reach their destination, officials said. Blind patrons will be given 3-by-6-inch flash cards to hold up to alert bus drivers about which line they want to use. Drivers have also been instructed to call out line numbers when the bus pulls into a stop. The cards are being used after a 30-day pilot program proved successful, officials said. On an average weekday, 2,800 blind patrons board MTA buses.

Three Arabs traveling on an Israeli bus Sunday drew knives and stabbed Jewish passengers, slaying one and wounding three before a police officer who happened upon the attack killed one of the assailants. Stunned bystanders looked on as frightened passengers, some dripping blood, poured out of the bus into a busy shopping area in Ramat Gan, a city adjacent to Tel Aviv.

A former Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus driver was sentenced Thursday to three years in jail on sexual battery charges for fondling two teenagers and a woman while on duty, sometimes while driving, authorities said. William Leroy Smythe, 57, of Tarzana was sentenced to the maximum penalty by San Fernando Municipal Judge Roy Carstairs, who also ordered Smythe to register as a sex offender, Deputy City Atty. Jose Egurbide said.

On the first day of the bus drivers' strike last week, panic-stricken Judy Ernst called the Orange County Transit District's Commuter Network hot line hoping to arrange a ride to her job at an Irvine-based restaurant company. Within two hours, Ernst was matched with Irene Tafulu, a technician at an Irvine computer firm. "When the buses went out of service, there was no way for me to get to work," Ernst said in an interview this week. "They certainly helped me out."

An unidentified man disembarking from an RTD bus shot at a fellow passenger with a starter's pistol Thursday afternoon, RTD police and witnesses said. The attack occurred on the No. 28 line from Eagle Rock as it was stopped at Spring and Macy streets downtown. The two men exchanged words before the suspect drew the pistol and fired, a witness said.

A passenger on a Santa Monica city bus decided to take it for a joy ride Wednesday, driving through the city for 15 minutes before parking and going into a restaurant, where he was arrested, police said. Three other passengers were on the bus at 4th Street and Broadway in Santa Monica when the 45-year-old man jumped into the driver's seat at 7:30 p.m. after the regular driver left the bus for undetermined reasons, Sgt. George Cortwright said.

Municipal bus driver Chauncey Plummer was charged with murder Thursday after he shot a passenger to death in an argument over a $1.50 fare. The dispute Wednesday night started when David Hayden reportedly tried to use another person's bus pass, police said. Witnesses said Hayden punched the driver after he was ordered off the bus.