Bus Drivers Rally For Partitions, Security Cameras In All Their Vehicles
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Bus drivers rallied in Downtown Brooklyn on Monday for better protection from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in the wake of a recent uptick in riders assaulting drivers.
Several drivers who have been assaulted demanded that the MTA install partitions and cameras on buses more quickly.
Currently about 12 percent of all city buses have one or the other.
The B68 bus in Brooklyn on which driver Mark Anthony Salandy was stabbed last week with a syringe had neither.
Salandy said he is worried the syringe was infected.
"I felt like if we had the partition there, something to protect us, it wouldn't have happened. He would have been going at the partition. I could have called for help. It could have given me a few seconds to not have to go through this," said Salandy.
MTA officials say through the end of August there were 62 assaults, up 3 percent from the same time last year.
The agency says it is installing more barriers and cameras and is working with Albany to make one of the most common offenses, spitting on drivers, a crime.