Feb 27, 2008 12:44 pm US/Eastern
Guns Taken Away From Mass. Pike Toll Workers
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Toll collectors on the Massachusetts Turnpike will no longer be allowed to carry a gun while on the job.
The turnpike's executive director Alan LeBovidge says he ordered 16 employees to turn in their weapons because there was no proof they had the proper state police firearms training.
Pike officials told WBZ they were worried these employees did not have the proper training to deal with a potential robbery and that the guns were not being properly maintained.
Normally a courier service transported the money; but when a courier was unavailable, a group of specially trained workers would transport the toll money to a central holding facility.
The Boston Herald reports that these workers carried .38 caliber handguns for protection as they transported the cash from the toll booths.
The Turnpike told WBZ that the guns were always kept in a secure location and never in the tollbooths themselves.
Those duties will now be handled by state troopers on a temporary basis.
LeBovidge told the Herald "I didn't want to have a Wild West show out there."
Apparently the only instruction these employees had was target practice at a local firing range.
The union representing toll collectors has filed a grievance against the decision.
State Senator Steven Baddour of Methuen told paper the practice was "frightening" and that the last time he saw a toll collector with a gun "was when Sonny got blown away in The Godfather."
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