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player ready...A Chicago Transit Authority bus driver had to escape out of a window in the middle of a route on the city’s Northwest Side early Wednesday morning after a passenger tried to commandeer her bus at knifepoint, officials said.
The male passenger was riding a No. 53 Pulaski bus in the 2400 block of North Pulaski Road in the Logan Square neighborhood just before 2:40 a.m. when he pulled out a sharp object and demanded that the bus not stop, according to Chicago police. The driver, a 57-year-old woman, complied.
After “a short time,” the woman ultimately escaped the bus through a window, police said. No injuries were reported.
The man initially fled but was arrested shortly after, police said. Criminal charges were pending as of Wednesday afternoon. In a statement, the CTA said it would be “working in close consideration with local law enforcement to assist the investigation.”
Asked about the incident after the CTA’s monthly board meeting on Wednesday, acting agency President Nora Leerhsen said the CTA would be “working to continue to ensure felony charges are brought in this case.”
“We are closely following her status,” Leerhsen said of the bus driver. “There are no injuries reported from that case.”
During Wednesday’s board meeting, Leerhsen presented crime data she said showed significant recent drops in crime on the CTA following a recent surge in law enforcement staffing on the system.
So far this year, serious crimes on the CTA are down 24% year-over-year on the portion of the CTA within city limits, according to Chicago police data. Those figures include crimes aboard buses, trains, and at bus stops and stations, as well as on other CTA property such as garages.
On Wednesday, Leerhsen cited more granular data to demonstrate recent improvements in public safety on the city’s trains and buses.
“Notably, the positive trends are concentrated in areas where we are specifically sending resources in a targeted, data-informed way,” she said.
Serious crime on the CTA was down 47% in April when compared with the same time last year, Leerhsen said, and violent crime was down 33%. And on the stretch of the Red Line between Roosevelt and 95th Street, serious crime was down more than 70% in April compared with the same month last year, she said.
Still, certain serious crimes — namely aggravated batteries and sexual assaults — are up on the CTA year-over-year. Aggravated batteries are up 8.5% over the year, according to Chicago police data.