Bus driver: I feared drug user would pull out a gun and shoot me
A BUS driver has told how she feared a passenger who was using drugs on board her bus would pull a gun on her.
Suzanne Armstrong, who has been a driver with Dublin Bus for nearly a decade, recounted the ‘terrifying’ incident as she was speaking to politicians examining issues of abuse and antisocial behaviour on public transport.
She told the Oireachtas Transport Committee: ‘I drove over a ramp one time and there were people using [drugs] upstairs and their drugs went flying off the floor, but I was actually petrified because I heard them shouting and I was thinking would they come down to get me.’ The bus driver, who is a SIPTU representative, said one of the users appeared in front of her and was rooting around in the back of the waistband of their trousers.
She said: ‘I thought “what is he going to do, is he going to shoot me?” It might seem like nothing to someone else but it’s actually terrifying when it’s happening to you. It’s huge.’
Ms Armstrong said she feels ‘incredibly’ vulnerable while driving buses on her own and only has the screen on the cab for protection.
‘It’s a lot when people get really angry or irritated, and you don’t know if they’re intoxicated,’ she said. ‘Sometimes a garda will get on your bus. There is no carry on when they are on your bus. If they flash the badge, because they have free travel and other passengers see them do it, there is no carry on.’
Ms Armstrong said there is otherwise ‘no deterrent’ to antisocial behaviour on public transport. She said: ‘They will get off one bus or [get] on to the Luas or whatever, there is nothing to stop them. Sometimes you know
who these people are. It doesn’t make a difference.’
Ms Armstrong said the ‘protocol’ given to bus drivers when they are trained is that they have to stay in their cab, keep the door closed, avoid conflict, de-escalate if possible and call central control.
Luas driver for 20 years John Doyle, also with SIPTU, told the committee he believes ‘transport police should have been here a long time ago’.
Mr Doyle said when authority officers first arrived in black uniforms they were respected, ‘but then they realised these people have no power, they just check tickets in another uniform’.
He said: ‘We have no deterrents. None whatsoever. The people know the response time for the gardaí.
‘They know our authority officers are powerless, absolutely powerless. The untouchables all start at a very young age, there is no age limit to anti-social behaviour. When it starts at a young age, they’re untouchable, so don’t learn respect.’
He said gardaí showing up in uniform have ‘power’ over anti-social behaviour.
He added: ‘I’ve seen people with knives threatening children, everything, you name it, I’ve seen it all. I’m there 20 years. When you see it every day, you just feel like you’re fed up going to work. It causes people to miss days.’
‘The untouchables start at young age’