A Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) bus driver has been charged in a crash that killed a woman in Downtown Detroit earlier this month.
Geraldine Johnson, 59, is charged with one count of moving violation causing death.
Related: DDOT driver in fatal accident also ran over, killed passenger in 2015
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said 67-year-old Janice Bauer was crossing the street on a green light when she was hit by a bus driven by Johnson. It happened near Griswold and W. Congress St. around 7:30 a.m. on June 2.
Medics arrived on the scene and pronounced Bauer dead.
Related: 'How is this tolerated?' Family grieves after DDOT driver's second fatal accident
“This case is tragic on every level. Janice Bauer lost her life. The alleged facts are that defendant, Geraldine Johnson, literally ran her over with the city bus she was driving and caused her death, “ Worthy said in a statement
Johnson is a 25-year DDOT employee, and she was also behind the wheel in 2015 when she ran over Joey Davis.
After reaching his stop, Davis walked off the bus and retrieved his bicycle from a rack attached to the front.
Surveillance video showed that the female bus driver appeared to be looking in her rear-view mirror—and not at the man in front of her bus—when she took her foot off the brake and drove over him.
Davis died later at the hospital and his family sued the city, settling for $4.5 million.
Despite the considerable settlement, the city did not fire Davis. Instead, she was retrained by the city and remained a DDOT bus driver.
7 Action News first revealed that the driver remained with the city during an investigation in 2017.
“This was a human life that was lost once, and now we’re faced with this again,” said attorney James Harrington, whose firm represented Davis’s family in 2015. “It’s unacceptable.”
“The driver just took off. Horrible accident. No excuse,” said Dan Dirks in 2017, while he was director of DDOT. “One of our customers suffered a fatality.”
Wednesday afternoon in 36th District Court, Johnson was arraigned on the charge. A not guilty plea was entered on her behalf.
The judge brought up multiple crashes either with a bus or her personal vehicle over the years, saying to Johnson: "the court does find you to be a danger."
Johnson was given a $100,000 personal bond with a GPS tether and a driving restriction.
Johnson's pretrial date has been set for August 15 at 8:30 a.m.
