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Friday, April 17, 2009

Man in wheelchair, 61, killed by SEPTA bus at familiar spot

Milton Boneta cheated death seven months ago when he was struck by a SEPTA bus in his wheelchair at 8th Street and Girard Avenue.
Fate revisited him in cruel fashion at the same intersection earlier today. This time, he was not as lucky.
Police said the Route 47 bus crushed Boneta, 61, as he crossed 8th Street in his motorized wheelchair at about 4:15 p.m.
Based on the reactions of witnesses and the grisly scene, there was no chance he could have survived this accident.
Zakia Gillyard, 26, was standing in front of the Citgo gas station on North 8th Street seconds before Boneta was killed.
“He was in the street, about two feet from the corner. We saw the bus, and we told him to get out the street,” she said.
“I guess he thought he had enough time. The bus turned real fast and hit him. His chair was caught on the front of the bus, but then he went under,” Gillyard said, while firefighters hosed off the blood-stained pavement.
Gina Doherty, 27, who was waiting for a trolly on Girard Avenue, said she started screaming when the accident unfolded like a scene from a horror film.
“I saw the man’s body come out from under the back of the bus. I called 9-1-1 and ran over there,” Doherty said.
 

“The operator told me to check for a pulse or to see if he was breathing,” she said, adding that his body clearly was too badly mangled for any lifesaving efforts. Several Citgo employees came out and placed a blue blanket over Boneta’s remains until police arrived.
Both women claimed the bus driver was speeding in attempt to beat the traffic light and motorists traveling east on Girard.
SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said the bus had just turned left onto 8th Street from the westbound lane of Girard Avenue when Boneta was hit.
The bus finally skidded to a stop in front of a building about a half-block down 8th Street.
Detectives from the police Accident Investigation Division said the driver told them he didn’t see Boneta.

A source confirmed that Boneta was struck at the same intersection by the Route 47 bus on Sept. 10. Boneta suffered a fractured foot in that accident, according to reports at the time.
As the evening wore on, news of Boneta’s horrific death spread through the neighborhood.
Patricia McBride, a friend, arrived at the intersection in disbelief. “Not Milton!” she cried, as Doherty and other witnesses tried to explain the tragedy.
“He was up and down here [Girard Avenue] all the time. Nobody bothered him," she said. “It’s the second time a bus hit him! He was just trying to live his life like everybody else.”
McBride said Boneta lived in an apartment on Franklin Street near Poplar. A stroke confined him to a wheelchair years ago.
“He had a daughter and a granddaughter. He was a nice man,” she said. “How could this happen?”
Posted by David Gambacorta @ 11:44 PM  Permalink | 10 comments
Comments   
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:22 AM, 04/18/2009
    it's a shame. but not surprising to anyone who has seen how Septa operates (atrociously poor aggressive bus drivers)
    — yantastic
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:46 AM, 04/18/2009
    You would think, after one incident, Septa would have alerted the routes operators of the hazard. I hope Septa has plenty of money, because this case had prior knowledge, and they are liable. My sincere sympathy to this poor souls family.
    — FJG JR
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:02 AM, 04/18/2009
    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
    — phillyflava
  • Comment removed.
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:35 AM, 04/20/2009
    KA CHING.....KA CHING
    — gogetem
  • Comment removed.
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:19 PM, 04/20/2009
    ryno3 and elericram: The victim had the green light, too. If memories of Driver's Ed serve me well, motorists are supposed to yield to pedestrians, no?
    — phillyconfidential


10 comments
About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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