A former Metrobus driver on Friday pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in a fatal crash in Dupont Circle.
Ronald W. Taylor, 41, of Laurel, faces up to three years in prison for violating his parole in Maryland for two previous drug felonies at the time of the crash.
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Taylor crashed his bus into a minivan taxi on Sept. 26, 2008, six months after he started at Metro. The crash killed Bartlett Tabor, 55, and hospitalized his wife, and their two children, ages 9 and 10. The taxi driver was knocked unconscious.
The family sued Metro for $100 million, and the transit agency settled the case in 2010 in a confidential agreement.
Prosecutors said Taylor ran a traffic light at Connecticut and Virginia avenues that had been red for 17 seconds before he entered the intersection. The collision destroyed the cab.
The bus, which was out of service and had no passengers, left the roadway and vaulted a granite retaining wall into the Owen Park Fountain on the grounds of the Federal Reserve.
The bus’s electronic control module, or “black box,” determined that the bus was traveling 42 mph in a 25 mph lane.
