Slain bus driver worked nights to care for grandchild
Irvine Fraser worked the evening shift as a Winnipeg bus driver, so he could help look after his granddaughter during the daytime.
Early Tuesday morning, Fraser, 58 — who was looking forward to retirement as early as next year, according to colleagues — died after a passenger allegedly stabbed him at the end of his route at the University of Manitoba.
“There is no reason this should’ve happened. … My fellow brother was murdered for doing his job last night, that’s all I know,” fellow transit driver Nelson Giesbrecht told reporters.
As police reviewed security footage and tried to sort through a reason for the attack, members of the transit community said the case highlighted the need for better protections for bus operators.
“I don’t want Ir vine’s death to be in vain,” said John Callahan, president of Local 1505 of the Amalgamated Transit Union.
Callahan said protective barriers have been tested in the past, but some drivers felt claustrophobic and worried that they might become trapped in an emergency.
There are now some calls for buses to be redesigned with driver’s side doors to give them an escape route, he said. “Countless numbers of transit workers are assaulted in many ways every year. Most are the result of a fare dispute, but an alarming number happen just because someone wants to do violence to a bus driver,” the union’s international president, Larry Hanley, said in a statement.
Details of what prompted the attack are still not clear. Union officials said the altercation started on the bus and then spilled outside the bus.
Nobody else was believed to be on the bus when the attack occurred, Winnipeg police said. They said officers got the call just before 2 a.m. and found Fraser suffering from serious stab wounds. He died at hospital.
Officers, led by a canine unit, arrested a 22- year- old suspect trying to cross the frozen Red River and took him back to the river bank.
At one point, a canine officer returned to the river to continue the investigation and fell through the ice. Officers used a rope to pull him to safety; he was not injured.
Friends and co- workers, meanwhile, remembered Fraser as a big man with a booming voice, easy smile and hearty handshake. Union officials said Fraser and his wife looked after their young granddaughter after their daughter passed away. “For a guy that had a lot of struggles, this is not the way he should’ve gone,” Callahan said.
“It’ s heartbreaking for all of us,” said Aleem Chaudhary, Local 1505’s executive vice-president. “He was liked by everybody — always had time to talk to you.”
Fraser wasn’t the type of driver “who would care about a bus fare if somebody said, ‘Oh I need a ride,’ ” Giesbrecht told reporters.
“I’m pretty shaken up. It’s supposed to be Valentine’s Day, not a day of mourning. It’s supposed to be about love, not death.”
Giesbrecht, a bus driver for 19 years, said he now counts himself among those in support of protective barriers for drivers.
“How many crazies are out there that I just let on the bus that are just on the verge? I don’t know. ... My opinion is now I’m at the point of put me in a cage.”
A federal law was passed in February 2015 to allow for more severe penalties for attacks on bus drivers. Bregg’s Law was named after Edmonton transit driver Tom Bregg, who was beaten so severely that he suffered brain injuries and lost the sight in one eye.
Winnipeg police posted a tweet Tuesday trying to reassure rattled residents that it was safe to take buses.
“Our public t ransit is safe,” it quoted Chief Danny Smith saying. “I ride the bus. My family rides the bus. I believe it is safe.”
I DON’T WANT IRVINE’S DEATH TO BE IN VAIN.