A Goose Flew into an MBTA Bus Windshield and Injured Its Driver

Photo via Twitter/@SAhabibii

For your average MBTA bus driver, the road is always full of hazards, like the cyclists and motorized scooters lurking around every corner, blinker-allergic Massholes switching lanes on the fly, unruly passengers taking out their bad days on public transit employees. But one driver making his way through Newton this weekend had a serious run-in with an obstacle from the animal kingdom: a goose.

According to the MBTA, a driver who has yet to be identified was traveling a route in Newton when one of the birds smacked into his windshield, shattering the glass, injuring its operator, and bringing the trip to a halt.

The driver was taken to the hospital but is now “doing well,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo says in an email. “He was checked out at the hospital and released.”

A photo of the aftermath taken by Twitter user shows the animal left the bus’s driver side windshield with a large, goose-sized imprint. The bus will return to service after the windshield can be replaced at some point this week, Pestauro says.

Hello. Thanks for reaching out to us. Unfortunately, a bird flew into the windshield.

— MBTA (@MBTA) August 11, 2019

This isn’t the first time public transportation in Boston has had to grapple with wildlife-related issues. An Orange Line train earlier this year was held up for several minutes while T employees had to deal with a “distraught swan” on the tracks. In 2016, T workers rescued an owl that smacked into a Green Line train, and brought it to Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine to receive treatment (it didn’t damage the train, as it was very small). Birds also disrupted a flight from Boston to New York in March of this year, when an American Airlines pilot had to make an emergency landing at Logan Airport after flying into a flock of geese during takeoff. No one was injured.

Such is life when sharing the skies, and the roads, with birds.