Passenger attacks on bus drivers soaring, new MTA statistics show
BY Pete Donohue
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, October 24th 2011, 4:00 AM
Ron Antonelli/News
Bus drivers are facing more attacks from abusive passengers this year.
Passenger assaults on bus drivers are up 20% this year - with seven attacks on average every month, according to MTA statistics.
There were 69 physical assaults in the first nine months of this year - compared with 57 during the same stretch last year, the statistics reveal.
"It's dangerous," said Bx9 driver Maria Hogan, who was slugged by an irate Bronx passenger on Sept. 10. "People think they can just get away with abusing you verbally or physically."
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority didn't offer any theories for the rise in attacks on drivers. But union chiefs partly blame management.
Some supervisors instruct drivers to challenge riders who don't pay, resulting in dangerous confrontations with volatile fare-beaters, said Willie Rivera, a Local 100 bus division chairman.
"They're putting our members in harm's way," Rivera said. "If you want to challenge people who don't pay, we've always said they should go get the cops ... or hire enforcement agents."
Local 100 organizer J.P. Patafio theorized that drivers face a more hostile public on account of high unemployment, service cuts and fare hikes.
MTA spokesman Charles Seaton said drivers are trained to "gently remind" riders of the fare but not challenge them.
"Someone may be thinking of something else and forget to pay," Seaton said. "You certainly have to say something, making it as light as possible."
Union officials say the case of Jamel Wright, a driver on the M35 route, highlights drivers' predicament.
Wright was written up in August for allegedly being too lax on fare-beaters. Management staffers doing sidewalk surveillance in August accused Wright of waving three passengers onboard at a Randalls Island bus stop and remaining silent while four others entered without paying.
Wright initially faced a suspension, but the penalty was reduced to refresher training.
On Oct. 11, Wright reminded a man to pay the fare. The man punched Wright repeatedly in the face, union and management officials said.
The M35 is particularly troublesome, union officials said. The Randalls Island stop is outside a homeless shelter, and riders who are broke, volatile or both are not uncommon, they said.
The most extreme case of violence against bus drivers in recent years was the December 2008 murder of Edwin Thomas on Brooklyn's B46 bus route. An ex-con stabbed Thomas in a dispute over a free transfer.
After Thomas' murder, the MTA installed safety partitions in a limited number of buses.
In Hogan's case, her attacker was enraged the bus didn't pull over at his regular stop, which was closed for construction. He punched her in the face and tried to pull her from her seat.
Emotionally distraught, Hogan hasn't returned to work.
"I've been assaulted twice now," she said. "My biggest fear is what's going to happen when I come back. Is it going to be the third time?"
pdonohue@nydailynews.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/10/24/2011-10-24_in_harms_way_li_attacks_on_bus_drivers_up_20_over_last_yr_li_mta_fueling_farebea.html#ixzz1bhRJeFRp
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Steve Downs
Chair, T/O Division of TWU 100
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