Brick attack leaves bus driver with glass in eye
A BUS driver was left with glass in his eye after a gang attacked his vehicle with bricks.
A group of thugs in Bolton hurled numerous bricks at the Vision Bus on the 129 route, from Higher Green to Farnworth, as it was passing through Mosley Common.
The bricks were thrown with such force that they smashed three windows and the door.
Glass flew into the driver’s eye, according to Vision bosses, and paramedics rushed to treat him after the incident at around 8.15pm.
Bus drivers in Bolton are becoming increasingly ‘nervous’ when working as a result of multiple attacks across the area in recent months – including another incident on the same night.
At 7.45pm on Tuesday, the 559 service was hit with two bricks while travelling along Willows Lane in Deane, leaving two windows smashed.
In the wake of the attacks, Vision called off its services into local estates, instead telling drivers to stay on main roads for the rest of the evening.
The regular routes have now been reinstated.
Vision Bus director Chris Smith branded the vandalism ‘mindless behaviour.’
He said: “In the incident in Mosley Common, a gang emerged and threw four to five house bricks at the vehicle. They smashed three windows and a glass door and the driver ended up with glass in his eye.
“On Willows Lane, bricks were thrown from either side and smashed two windows.”
He added: “It is getting to the point that drivers are getting nervous when they are working and that is not a position they should have to be in.
“It is just mindless, reckless behaviour.”
The incidents have been reported to the police and anyone with information is encouraged to call officers on 101.
A COMMUNITY football club already hit by the pandemic is now counting the cost of vandalism.
Three men broke into Tameside Stadium, the home of Curzon Ashton, on Wednesday evening.
Mark Bradshaw, the Ashtonunder-Lyne club’s development officer, told the M.E.N. they damaged padlocks, doors and an expensive high-spec microphone.
The club will now look to cover the cost of replacements at what is already a difficult time for grassroots football.
Mark said: “They just think we play football here, but what they don’t realise is how much money that we invest into that, to play at the level we do.
“It’s a good pitch. If people trash it, it could have a massive impact on us, it could take us out of business in the current climate.
“We are at a level where there are some clubs that have millionaire owners, but we don’t have that.
“We do it by volunteers working hard and we generate money by hiring out the function room and the training pitch.”
The vandals, who also took balls and unused pads from a storage shed, triggered an alarm and fled the scene when police arrived.
“It’s hard to say how much it will cost us,” Mark said. “We are probably going to try and cover the cost ourselves so we can minimise it.”
Mark says there were two further incidents later on Wednesday evening, with as many as eight people trying to break into the stadium at one point.
The club has released CCTV images from the time of the break-in and is urging anyone with information to come forward.
A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said no arrests have been made and enquiries are ongoing. Anyone with any information should call police on 101 or report it online, quoting incident number 2045 of March 3.