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It’s open season on beleaguered Hub meter maids, according to a Herald review that found nearly two dozen of them have come under attack since 2011 by fuming motorists who have cursed, spat at, punched and even rammed defenseless parking enforcers with their cars.
“Folks go from (using) cups of coffee to multi-ton vehicles to go after officers who are just doing their job,” said city transportation chief Thomas Tinlin, referring to the infamous 2005 Hummer driver, dubbed the “Java Jerk,” who tossed a cup of hot coffee into a meter maid’s face. “It staggers the mind.”
The Herald review comes as a former MBTA bus driver is slated to return to court Thursday, four months after she was charged with plowing her bus into a meter maid who was trying to write her a $75 ticket. The driver, Lataria Milton, pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and reckless operation. She was fired within days of the incident, a T spokesman said.
Among the assaults reported to authorities:
•â€‰â€‰â€‰â€‰A meter maid complained in August she was followed up Devonshire Street by a hot-under-the-collar motorist, who then “stepped on the gas” and hit her as she crossed the street. The victim said the driver was “yelling and swearing” when she stepped away from the car’s bumper. “She once again stepped on the gas and hit me again,” the parking enforcer wrote.
•â€‰â€‰â€‰â€‰Another meter maid reported in September that moments after she tagged a car in Charlestown, the driver pulled up beside her and “whipped a hard plastic bottle in my face.”
•â€‰â€‰â€‰â€‰Just five days later, another meter maid said a driver flicked a cigarette at her head.
•â€‰â€‰â€‰â€‰In July 2011, a woman upset over a ticket she got near Brigham and Women’s Hospital came so close to a meter maid during an altercation, their faces were touching. “Worst incident in 10 years,” the officers wrote.
•â€‰â€‰â€‰â€‰In September 2011, a meter maid reported an episode in South Boston involving a man and woman who cursed her for writing a ticket and hurled racial insults at her before she could get to her car. As the meter maid drove away, she said, the man spit through her window at her.
All told, Boston meter maids have reported 23 physical attacks by motorists since the start of 2011, including 15 where they said they wanted to press charges.
The number of attacks is “consistent” with past years, said Tinlin, adding that “unfortunately, you have seen more aggressive behavior” from some.
“It continues to be alarming that even one person thinks it’s OK to put their hands on another person for, what, a parking ticket?” Tinlin said.
State Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez (D-Jamaica Plain) has worked with Tinlin and Mayor Thomas M. Menino to file legislation that would toughen penalties on those accused of attacking public employees, meter maids included. The bill has stalled since Tinlin first pushed it more than five years ago. Sanchez said he’s considering filing again.
In the August incident, Vicki Kilduff, the meter maid who was struck by a T bus, remains on worker’s comp leave, according to city officials.
Her brother and lawyer, Kevin Kilduff, declined to detail her exact injuries but said yesterday the headaches she’s endured since the incident “are less frequent than they were.” He said she is still mulling a suit against the MBTA and the bus driver.
“I know she wants to get back to work,” Kilduff said. “That’s first and foremost in her mind. She loves what she does.”
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