RTD Driver to Be Charged in Bus Fatality

An RTD driver whose bus ran over a 55-year-old man in the Los Feliz area earlier this month, fatally injuring him, will be arraigned next week on charges of vehicular manslaughter and hit-run driving, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said Friday.

Cathy Stanley Miles, 38, faces a maximum of one year in jail on each of the charges and a possible $10,000 fine.

Southern California Rapid Transit District officials said they had no comment on the case.

Meanwhile, an arraignment for a second RTD driver on a misdemeanor charge stemming from a July 3 accident that subsequently claimed the life of a passenger was postponed Friday until Oct. 31 to allow authorities to consider filing additional charges.

That driver, Shirley Jean Riojas, 26, was fired by the RTD after she tested positive in a drug test administered after the crash.

Riojas was charged with making an unsafe lane change, which caused her bus to overturn on the Hollywood Freeway, injuring passenger Lois K. Welbon, 67, of Tarzana, and 26 others. Welbon died Sept. 15.

City attorney spokesman Mike Qualls said officials are awaiting further information from the California Highway Patrol and the coroner’s office to determine if additional charges should be filed against Riojas.

In the incident involving Miles, police said the driver told them that she had stopped to take on additional passengers when a man who was staggering and holding a wine bottle tried to board the bus.

She said she shut the door on the man, who later was identified as Douglas Caldwell, and drove off. Police said Caldwell apparently fell under the double right wheels of the bus, suffering eight broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

Detectives said Miles told them that she did not realize she had injured the man and continued on her route.