Bus drivers: Get cops to protect us from assaults

Fed up with being assaulted and spat at on the job, city bus drivers on Wednesday demanded the NYPD and MTA do more to keep them safe.

“The whole situation is really dire,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 official Donald Yates said during a news conference Wednesday at the Kingsbridge bus depot in upper Manhattan. “We need a police presence on the bus. We need MTA police to get involved. We need help.”

The plea from the transit workers comes amid rising reports of bus operators being assaulted and harassed.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority data show 64 drivers were assaulted last year, up 25% from the 51 reported in 2019. The assaults increased as bus ridership slumped during the pandemic, which remains down about 1 million on weekdays from prepandemic levels of about 2.3 million per weekday.

So far in 2022, at least 15 bus drivers have been assaulted and another 551 have been harassed, MTA data show.

One of those assaults was a May 5 incident on the Bx18 route when a man and woman splashed a bus driver in the face with liquid and then pummeled her to the ground as she tried to flee.

Wilfredo Tineo, who drives the

Bx18, said that’s a common experience for bus operators on the route. He recounted an incident last June when he was randomly spat on by a rider.

“Whatever he had in his mouth went all over my head, my face,” Tineo said, recounting the incident. “I just want to let people know this is traumatizing, this is degrading, this is disgusting.”

Local 100 officials called for the MTA to install floor-to-ceiling partitions on buses — like those used on London’s bus system — that protect drivers behind a secure door.

The agency installed some partitions on buses following the 2008 murder of bus driver Edwin Thomas, who was stabbed by a rider who tried to evade the fare.

The barriers don’t do enough, drivers say.

“We’re not allowed to protect ourselves,” said Local 100 shop steward and bus driver Monique Rondon. “We have a barrier which they reach over and try to open. They try to climb over.”

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said during a separate news conference Wednesday that he’s “in the bus buying business” and would look into new barriers for drivers.

“Our workers shouldn’t have to prepare to be attacked,” said Lieber. “That’s not their job.”

Lieber urged lawmakers in Albany to pass a bill that would make spitting on a transit worker a misdemeanor offense. Those who are caught spitting on bus drivers are currently issued citations.

Local 100 has pushed the measure for years, and the bill passed the Senate last year before dying in the Assembly.