Bus Drivers' Union Wants More Protections Following Two Bronx Assaults
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The union for city bus drivers is demanding better protection in the wake of the second assault on a driver on the same Bronx route in less than three months. NY1's Transit reporter Tina Redwine filed the following report. Bus driver Maria Hogan, seen above right, said Wednesday she does not know how she will go back to driving after being attacked this weekend by a passenger on the Bx9 route.
"I have bruises on my arms and legs," she said.
Hogan said the rider, who she thinks was about 6 feet tall, was angry she skipped a stop in the Fordham section of the Bronx that was closed because of construction.
When she reached the next stop, she says he punched her and left.
Just three months ago, driver Marlene Bien-Aime, seen above left, was attacked while driving the same Bx9 route.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says 57 other drivers were assaulted from January to August, more than a 13 percent increase over last year.
Bx9 drivers told NY1 they found that rise in violence worrisome.
"People are so crazy these days, if you tell them the correct thing, they try to hit you," said one driver.
Although MTA officials would not yet say which routes are most dangerous, the bus drivers' union said the Bx9 is one of the worst and management is not doing enough.
"That particular location is a hot spot," said Tony Aiken of the Transport Workers Union. "If you don't have the partitions there, work with police department, work with your security department. Work with anybody who is going to go out there and make us feel safe."
An MTA spokesperson told NY1, "This past weekend's assault is an outrageous insult to the thousands of transit workers who serve the public every day... and it is working closely with TWU to develop barriers to protect the drivers."
Union officials said that is not good enough.
"Actions speak louder than words, not words without action," said Aiken.
MTA officials said they have delivered, in the form of surveillance cameras on about a third of the buses that run out of the terminal where Hogan works.
But Hogan said cameras were not on the bus she was driving.