MTA Bus Driver Arrested In Fatal Hit & Run Has History Of Arrests

The MTA bus driver charged with felony hit-and-run after fatally striking a 70-year-old woman on Monday morning in Brooklyn has a criminal record involving arrests for felony assault and drug possession.

They are in disbelief over accusations that the man who is a father and grandfather and a 15-year veteran of the MTA could possibly be accused of running over a 75-year-old woman and then leaving the scene.

In 2014, eight MTA bus drivers hit and killed pedestrians with the right-of-way.

A claim that has led to many on the web crying foul: ‘She was right in front of you and you never stopped!’

“‘Often, they would take drivers word for it when drivers said, “Oh I didn’t see them” or ‘Oh I didn’t notice when I hit them”.

Roper’s family says he is not the monster he is being made out to be, that he did not know he had hit and killed Carol Bell.

“The bus was not in service at the time”, said MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan, adding that it had completed its B15 route and was on the way to the agency’s East New York depot. “We will closely follow the investigation, which is in a very early stage”. A few of these collisions led to misdemeanor charges under the city’s new Right of Way Law, sparking a campaign by TWU Local 100 to exempt bus drivers.

Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News Paul Roper, center, could face seven years once he’s arraigned on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

An attorney for Roper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But at an unrelated presser, Mayor de Blasio did say his administration remained resolute in its commitment to Vision Zero.

The bus plows into her just as she crosses the double yellow line, sending both the woman and her walker flying.

In September, the administration reported an overall 12.6 percent drop in traffic fatalities, a decrease of 249 from 285 in the latest fiscal year, with pedestrian deaths decreasing to 143 from 158 in the same period.