Top executives at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority faced questions on Thursday from board members frustrated over what they say is a lack of information about rising incidents of serious crime on L.A. County buses and trains, NBC4 has learned.
More: Crime Spikes on Metro Trains and Buses | Violent Attacks Worry Bus Riders
In a closed-door session of the executive management committee, MTA chief executive Art Leahey and transit chief Patrick Jordan discussed recent violent incidents on the countywide system’s buses and trains, according to a spokesman for board chair and County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and another source.
They also addressed the death last month of a woman who fell from a malfunctioning escalator, according to an agenda for the meeting.
The meeting came a day after an exclusive report by NBC4 on an increase in serious crime on the agency’s massive Metro system.
For the first ten months of 2012, assaults were up 13.5 percent on buses and trains, and robberies were up 42 percent.
Last week, an 18-year-old cognitively disabled woman was allegedly raped on a bus as it rode through Baldwin Hills. It was the fourth rape so far this year on a transit vehicle or at a station.
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The agency does not count assaults at bus stops, because it does not view bus stops as part of its territory.
In another development on Thursday, the Los Angeles County coroner ruled that the death of an 89-year-old man who had been assaulted on an MTA bus last month was not due to the beating he received.
