Open My Eyes. Shield Me From Harm. A COMMONSENSE BUS SAFETY PROPOSAL

Transcription

1 RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES: Open My Eyes. Shield Me From Harm. A COMMONSENSE BUS SAFETY PROPOSAL AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION MOVING AMERICANS SAFELY SINCE 1892

2 A M A L G A M A T E D T R A N S I T U N I O N JOIN THE FIGHT FOR A BETTER WORKSTATION

3 Public transportation has historically been one of the safest modes of travel. Riding the bus is 170 times safer than automobile travel. However, in recent years, there have been an alarming number of people critically injured or killed on or by a bus. The North American Bus Operator Workstation is prehistoric. It has not been redesigned in decades, and any changes added over the years have actually been detrimental to public safety. Massive mirrors and left side pillars make it impossible for drivers to see what they need to see to safely make it through crosswalks. In addition, with nothing separating operators from angry passengers, bus drivers are routinely assaulted -- often while the vehicle is in motion -- putting the lives of everyone on the bus and the roadway in jeopardy. European buses are lightyears ahead of us. The technology exists to make buses safe again. There is no reason for anyone to die while crossing the street or commuting home due to poor engineering. It s time to bring American transit buses into the 21 st Century. especially when making left hand turns due to the existence of bus components including giant side mirrors and the massive pillar on the left side of the windshield which create blind spots that obstruct the driver s view. Far too many pedestrians are critically injured or killed by transit buses in the United States each year. Newspaper headlines detailing these senseless tragedies can be seen on a regular basis from coast to coast. For proof, look no further than the pages below. Typical coach mirrors, mounted in critical sightlines, needlessly block the driver s vision, causing fatal accidents. In fact, from the point of view of the operator, up to 13 pedestrians may be hidden behind the massive A pillar and left side mirror at any given time. All transit buses in revenue service today have several enormous and unnecessary blind spots, including fare boxes and other design defects. The transit industry throughout North America has acknowledged that the blind spot issue is a real problem. CROSSWALKS AND BUS BLINDSPOTS: A DEADLY COMBINATION As the old joke goes, the chicken crosses the road to get to the other side. Unfortunately, the simple act of walking across the street is no laughing matter at all for unlucky Americans who just happen to find themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. Crosswalks have become mine fields throughout the nation. While distracted drivers and their electronic gadgets are always an issue, the biggest threat to pedestrians and bicyclists has become transit buses. The problem: remarkably, transit bus operators simply cannot see the entire crosswalk According to a groundbreaking report issued one decade ago, oftentimes when asked what happened following a bus and pedestrian collision, bus operators say that they just did not see the pedestrian, or that the pedestrians seem to have come from out of nowhere. 1 Bad bus engineering guarantees needless tragedies. What is astonishing, however, is that despite knowing the risks, transit systems from coast to coast continue to order these massive mobile manslaughter machines and put them on the road. Some transit agencies have actually 1 Guidebook for Mitigating Fixed-Route Bus-and-Pedestrian Collisions. TCRP Report 125, AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION 1

4 tried to eliminate left hand turns on their routes to the greatest extent possible, a ridiculous exercise. Others are trying out a talking bus, alerting pedestrians in crosswalks when a bus is approaching. And all systems train operators to bob and weave in their seat the so-called rock and roll method to attempt to see around the massive pillars and mirrors. This is a smallminded, incredibly naive solution which fails to address a massive problem. For the typical operator, leaning far enough to impede steering moves the eyes only half the width of some obstructions. Many operators simply cannot move around freely in the seat without the huge horizontal steering wheel jabbing them in the abdomen. This of course impacts their range of motion and vision. The mirrors and pillars create a moving blind spot as a bus makes a left tum. As a person walks off the curb and moves forward, he or she stays in the blind spot. The bus moves with the pedestrian so the driver never sees them coming. ATU s recommendations to the transit industry have gone ignored. It is time for federal authorities to address these safety issues as soon as possible. To prevent needless imminent tragedies, any new transit buses placed into service should have low mounted, reasonably sized left side mirrors and A pillars which allow operators, regardless of size, to adequately view pedestrians crossing in front of the bus and an overall drivers area which eliminates blind spots to the greatest extent possible. Please take action to save the lives of innocent pedestrians and bicyclists who are being struck and killed by transit buses across America due to fatal bus design flaws that can be easily addressed at minimal cost. We urge you to act before any more innocent people are crippled or killed. Meanwhile, even though the cost of liability far exceeds the cost of safe design, bus manufacturers one of whom estimates the increase in build cost to eliminate the blind spots would be under $300 per bus continue to sell their clients flawed and dangerous vehicles that are tailor-made to certain specifications. A woman was hospitalized after she was hit by an NJ Transit bus in Glen Rock on Monday evening, authorities said. The woman was hit near the intersection of Maple Avenue and Rock Road around 7:40 p.m., said NJ Transit spokeswoman Linda Torbic. Each one of these senseless tragedies has multiple victims: the person struck by the bus, their family and friends, and the bus operator whose life will never be the same. Some drivers have actually been handcuffed and hauled off to jail while still in shock over the accident the equivalent of blaming the meteorologist for a stormy day. These tragic incidents will continue to be out of the drivers control until the blind spot issue has been adequately addressed. A city Metro bus struck a woman in a crosswalk near Fountain Square Thursday night, trapping her under its tire until first responders could extract her. 2 OPEN MY EYES. SHIELD ME FROM HARM

5 The bus driver who hit and killed a pedestrian in South Lake Union Thursday night did not know he had hit a person and kept on driving after the collision, Seattle police reported Friday morning. The bus was turning from Blanchard to Westlake when it hit and killed the 43-yearold pedestrian. A local woman has died of injuries after being struck by an NJ Transit bus last week. Elizabeth Anne McAllister, 52, was walking at the intersection of West Jersey Avenue and Main Street on Aug. 29 when the front rack of the bus struck McAllister in the road, knocking her to the ground and causing a severe head injury. A man was killed by a Jefferson Parish Transit bus in Kenner last night after the bus struck him and dragged him a short distance. The intersection where the man was found is a turnaround for Jefferson Parish Transit busses, according to the KPD. The bus driver told police he heard a scream and got out to investigate, but he couldn t see anyone in the dim lighting, so he drove away, according to the KPD. A woman on her cellphone was pinned under a New Jersey Transit bus after walking into it, officials say. Just before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, the bus was traveling on Van Houten Ave. and was making a left onto Main Street in Paterson when the woman walked into the rear of the bus. The woman s leg was pinned under the rear driver s side tire of the bus. She was taken to St. Joseph s with a leg injury. She was alert and conscious. A pedestrian was struck by a bus while crossing the street outside of the square. The 69-year-old woman was in critical condition at MetroHealth Medical Center. Wednesday morning, she was struck by a bus turning left onto Rockwell Avenue from East Roadway. She was legally crossing the street in a marked crosswalk. A Durham bus driver was charged after hitting and killing a pedestrian. The bus driver was making a left turn onto Enterprise Street from the northbound lanes of S. Roxboro Street when the pedestrian was hit. AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION 3

6 A man s leg was badly mangled after he walked into the path of a city bus on a Bronx street Tuesday night, officials and witnesses said. The victim, who is in his 40s, was outside the crosswalk on E. 149th St. at Prospect Ave. in Woodstock when he walked into a BX17 bus making a right turn at about 9 p.m., officials said. Police say the bus went to turn left and head east on English when it hit the man, who was walking south to north on English. The 55-year-old became stuck under the bus. When firefighters arrived on the scene, they had to jack up the bus to free the man. He was taken to the hospital with non-critical injuries including a fracture, scrapes and bruises. A city bus hit a woman crossing a Queens intersection early Friday, officials said. The Q54 bus was turning left off Eliot Ave. onto Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood when it slammed into the 52-year-old victim, who was in the crosswalk, about 4:55 a.m., cops said. An MTA bus driver was arrested after a woman was hit and had her leg pinned under a bus. Just before 9 p.m. Monday, police said the M14D was traveling south on Avenue D and hit a 61-year-old woman while making a right turn to head east on Houston Street. An RTA bus driver has been fired after being involved in an accident that resulted in a woman s death. The investigation, according to RTA, confirmed that while the driver did slow down when proceeding north on East Roadway, she didn t come to a complete stop before making the left turn onto Rockwell. A pedestrian was hit and killed by a METRO bus in downtown Houston Tuesday evening. METRO Police said the bus, with no passengers on board, was turning southbound onto Milam from Congress. 4 OPEN MY EYES. SHIELD ME FROM HARM

7 A Montebello family mourned the death of their beloved grandmother Saturday, who died about two weeks after being hit by a bus in East Los Angeles. Olga Martinez, 58, was hit by an LADOT bus in the 1400 block of North Indiana Street on June 21. She died from her injuries Saturday morning. Martinez, who was homeless, was walking on Fowler Street when the bus turned and struck her. Her family said she was dragged and trapped under the bus. She was rushed to a hospital, but her legs were mangled and she was put on life support. A City bus struck and ran over a 43-year-old woman pushing her 3-year-old girl in a stroller across a Queens street on Tuesday - a street the city had designated a Vision Zero problem spot according to police. The woman and child crossed 46th Ave. at 111th St. in North Corona - across from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and the New York Hall of Science - at about 8:30 a.m. when a Q23 bus struck the woman, briefly pinning her under its front wheels, stunned witnesses told authorities. One of the bus wheels crushed the woman s left leg - just missing the stroller and the child, who was not harmed, officials said. A 73-year-old woman was struck and killed by an MTA bus in the East Village Tuesday morning. The incident happened at 9:45 a.m., as the M14 bus was making a left turn Columbia Street onto East Houston Street. The victim, identified as Anna Colon, was pronounced dead at the scene. A woman and three young children were injured after being struck by a CTA bus Monday morning in the Lake View neighborhood on the North Side. The CTA bus was heading north in the 3600 block of North Halsted at 10:09 a.m. when it struck the four pedestrians, according to Chicago Police. An elderly man was trying to cross the street at the crosswalk as the SEPTA shuttle bus was turning left, and the left side of the bus hit him. Officials said he became pinned under the bus and was pronounced dead at the scene. A pedestrian was in a crosswalk when she was hit by a bus and seriously injured in the downtown community of Core-Columbia Monday morning, San Diego police said. The 33-year-old woman had a walk signal and was crossing Front Street at West Ash Street when she was struck about 7:30 a.m., San Diego police Officer Dan Lasher said. The bus was turning left onto Front from Ash. AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION 5

8 A woman has died after she was hit by a bus in Bethesda, Maryland, early Tuesday just a block from the day care center where she worked. According to a preliminary investigation, Devika Gunasekere, of Rockville, was crossing Old Georgetown Road from west to east at Battery Lane as the bus driver tried to turn left from westbound Battery Lane onto Old Georgetown Road. A woman was killed after being struck by an MTA bus in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, on Monday night. Eleonora Shulkina, 62, of Brooklyn, was crossing the intersection on Avenue Z and 17th Street just before 6 p.m. when a B36 bus hit her while it was making a left turn. A pedestrian was hit and killed by a Metro Transit bus Wednesday afternoon in downtown Minneapolis. The accident happened about 3:45 p.m. as the bus was making a left turn from Second Street South onto Third Avenue South toward the Third Avenue Bridge, according to a Metro Transit spokesman. The bus hit a man while making its turn. The man died at the scene. A bus struck two pedestrians in Redondo Beach, killing a man and sending a woman to the hospital with serious injuries. The two were walking north in a crosswalk at Catalina Avenue and Avenue I in the Riviera Village shopping district when they were struck about 6:15 p.m. Wednesday as the bus made a left turn, according to the Redondo Beach Police Department. A person was critically injured after being struck by a bus in Lower Manhattan Monday morning. Witnesses said the bus was making a left turn at the intersection, and that the victim was in the crosswalk. 6 OPEN MY EYES. SHIELD ME FROM HARM

9 TRANSIT OPERATOR ASSAULT: AN EPIDEMIC ACROSS AMERICA Every year, thousands of transit employees throughout the U.S. -- mostly bus operators -- are assaulted in the course of performing their duties. Considering the fact that many of these abhorrent incidents occur while massive buses are rolling down the street, it is actually amazing that more pedestrians, bicyclists, and other motorists are not killed. People don t like paying increased fares for less frequent service, so quite often they take out their frustrations on the drivers -- the neighborhood tax collectors. Other disputes occur when operators simply enforce safety regulations. Mental illness is also an issue in many cases. Some incidents happen for no reason at all, as juveniles act out on the bus just for laughs. There is no excuse for any of it. Weapons vary. Some drivers get punched or kicked. Others are stabbed or strangled from behind. Some offenders spit, or throw steaming hot coffee or urine in the face of the operator. The remarkable thing about these bus operator assaults is that no one seems to care. If just one Amtrak operator or cruise ship captain was assaulted while performing their duties, there would likely be a Congressional hearing and immediate steps would be taken to secure the operator workstation and protect the person responsible for steering that vehicle or vessel. We know what happened after 9/11: aircraft cockpits are now totally secure, and passengers can t even wait on line for the restroom at the front of the plane anymore. Yet bus operators continue to get pummeled every day. They are sitting ducks. Some vehicles are hijacked and driven off the side of the road due to these brazen attacks. Why are buses treated differently? Moreover, contrary to common belief, this is not just a big city, late night, dangerous neighborhood problem. In the past decade, we have seen a dramatic increase in the level and intensity of senseless attacks on defenseless bus operators, and a glance at the articles below demonstrates that Small Town America is not immune from this epidemic. The long term psychological impacts of being brutally assaulted behind the wheel are extensive. Many people are never able to drive a bus again. Absenteeism becomes a real issue. To understand this, just think what it would be like if you had to look around your desk every few seconds, worrying that someone in your office might strike you in the face. It is not normal behavior and should not be accepted as just another day at the office in the transit world either. Although about 30 states have passed legislation enhancing the penalties for assaulting transit operators and the federal Patriot Act actually allows for a 20-year prison sentence for interfering with an operator in the line of duty, criminal penalties alone have not stopped these heinous acts from reoccurring. Transit buses do not sell tickets requiring identification, so most violators are able to flee the scene of the crime and escape justice. The logical next step is structural changes to the buses specifically the bus operator workstation to ensure that these incidents don t happen in the first place. It is well past the time to redesign the bus operator workstation through the provision of physical barriers and escape routes. An MTA bus driver was attacked by a man in The Bronx early Wednesday, police said. The bus was near the corner of Eastchester Rd. and Waters Pl. when a man, believed to be a passenger, dug his fingernails into the driver s face and scratched him around 5:50 a.m. A D.C. woman was arrested and charged after she allegedly doused a Metrobus driver with a bottle of Sunny Delight orange drink. The passenger was holding a bottle of the drink when she boarded the bus with her two children and became angry when the driver failed to wait for them to find a seat before moving, police said. AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION 7

10 A 23-year-old Yakima man was being held on $3,500 bail after police said he shoved a Yakima Transit bus driver s foot onto the gas pedal last week. The man behaved erratically after getting on the bus early at South Fourth and East Walnut streets, according to a probable cause statement. The man got up every time the bus stopped and yelled at her to get going because people were shooting at him. When the bus pulled onto North 21st Avenue from the transfer station at 2301 Fruitvale Blvd., the man crawled along the floor of the bus, grabbed the driver by the ankle and shoved her foot onto the accelerator, the affidavit said. The driver managed to stop the bus. Jane Hanson was clearing her light-rail train at Union Depot one morning when a heroin-abusing passenger struck her from behind. Jeanne ONeill has been assaulted, groped and spat on in her 17 years as a Metro Transit bus driver. David Stiggers has fielded verbal abuse and death threats while driving his bus routes. In the Twin Cities, assaults on transit operators have grown more common over the past five years, with many incidents stemming from conflicts as minor as fare disputes. Last year, 162 assaults were reported among the more than 1,500 Metro Transit operators. The assaults range from serious felonylevel assaults to disorderly conduct and threats. The 2016 assaults represent a nearly 17 percent jump from Two hotheaded city bus passengers attacked an MTA driver who had refused to stop his Bronx route to let them off, police said Saturday. The 48-year-old victim was steering the bus down Southern Blvd. and Longwood Ave. when the pair demanded that he pull over at 5 p.m on Friday, officials said. When the driver denied their request, one of the straphangers punched him in the face while the other spat in his eye, police said. An MTA BUS driver who was called a monkey by an enraged rider who threatened to kill him - then thrown to the ground - said he feared for his life. The driver was near the end of his QM11 express route in lower Manhattan Wednesday morning when a man tossed coffee on him and began to berate him. The driver stopped the bus and tried to escape - only to have the attacker shove him off the steps and onto the ground. A MetroBus driver was shot during an attempted robbery early Saturday while getting ready to start his route. The driver was standing near the bus on a sidewalk near the North Broadway Transit Center at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday when he was shot. A driver for LANTA says he keeps re-living the moment a passenger bashed him on the head leaving him with a bloody wound and a severe concussion. 8 OPEN MY EYES. SHIELD ME FROM HARM

11 Police arrested a 20-year-old Northeast D.C. man after they say he brandished a knife at an X2 bus operator and threatened to kill him in what began as an argument over a fare. Metro Transit Police have arrested a 19-year-old man for allegedly throwing a Sterno can at a Metrobus driver. The can hit the plexiglass shield designed to protect the operator, who was not injured. A Lynn man was arrested after prosecutors say he assaulted and flashed a handgun at an MBTA bus driver. Alcohol- and drug-fueled assaults on RFTA drivers physical and verbal have occurred more often in the past year and security measures by the transit agency are not curbing the problem. A Bethlehem woman, upset with a LANTA bus driver for continuing to drive after she requested a stop, threw coffee at him and pulled a gun on him, according to police. An irate passenger threw hot coffee in the face of a Brooklyn bus driver after he told her his bus was out of service. AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION 9

12 A woman who admitted to throwing a tumbler full of urine in the face of a Metrobus driver last August was sentenced Thursday to 120 days in jail and three years probation. Opal Brown, 38, of Southeast D.C., who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault last month, appeared for sentencing in D.C. Superior Court. The August assault involving Brown and the operator of an X2 Metrobus made headlines worldwide. Brown was exiting the bus at the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road when the driver, who had only been on the job a month, told her to Have a nice day. Police say Brown interpreted the driver s comments to be sarcastic. Police say Brown who had earlier relieved herself at the back of the bus took a plastic tumbler full of urine, reached around the edge of the plastic shield meant to protect bus drivers and threw the contents of the cup in the driver s face. On July 31, at about 6:50 p.m., an unidentified male entered an MTA bus at Castleton and Jewett Avenues with a lit cigarette, according to a written statement from the NYPD s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information. Once inside, the bus driver demanded the man put out the cigarette, at which point the man became angry, according to police. He punched the 44-year-old victim in the face, then fled on foot, police said. The driver suffered swelling, pain and redness to the right side of the face, and was transported to Richmond University Medical Center, police said. On Feb. 13, the women boarded an RTD bus at Federal Boulevard and West Mississippi Avenue, and refused to pay the fare. When the driver asked them to get off the bus, they refused to do so. The women went on to verbally and physically assault the driver. Shortly after the bus left the station, the police said in a statement, the driver and the suspect got into a verbal altercation, and the driver began to call the police. The suspect took the driver s phone and began hitting him with it, the police said. The driver continued to drive for about a mile and a half before stopping. Three teenage girls are in custody after police say they spit on and pepper-sprayed a TriMet bus driver in Northeast Portland. The two Queens men entered a Nassau Inter-County Express bus at the Mineola terminal without paying and rode to the last stop. As the pair were getting off the bus they began yelling at the 48-year-old driver and one of them threw a can of beer at the driver, police said. 10 OPEN MY EYES. SHIELD ME FROM HARM

13 A shirtless man can be seen on video trying to hijack a bus full of passengers. Some of the passengers were able to fight back, but the biggest hero in this situation was the bus driver, who remained calm and kept the passengers safe. Transit Police are investigating after a female MBTA bus driver was stabbed multiple times in Lynn. A preliminary investigation showed that a 53-year-old Lynn man traveling on the bus attacked the driver without provocation. A San Francisco Municipal Railway bus driver was assaulted by a pedestrian early Thursday morning in the city s South of Market area. The pedestrian walked up to the driver s window, which was partially opened, and started to pull on her jacket, pulling her toward the window. The driver hit the suspect several times in selfdefense and the suspect hit her back before eventually fleeing the scene. The victim heard something fall and saw a knife on the ground. A City bus driver was pummeled by three passengers in Brooklyn who refused to pay their fare Thursday, police said. The violence unfolded at 12:20 a.m. on a B17 bus in Canarsie, cops said. Instead of forking over the cash for their ride, the trio pulled the driver s sweater over his head and began punching him, authorities said. They tried to yank him off the bus, but the 58-year-old driver fought back, shoving the suspects off the bus at Remsen Ave. and Avenue J, police said. A Spokane Transit Authority driver was assaulted Friday morning as he was teaching a new driver the ropes in north Spokane. A driver in training was behind the wheel of the bus driving Route 22 on Northwest Boulevard around 7 a.m. when a departing passenger punched the experienced driver who was doing the training, STA operations director Steve Blaska said. There did not appear to be a confrontation before the assault. On the evening of April 24, 2017, an unidentified man boarded a bus in West Palm Beach, Fla. without paying his fare. The suspect became aggressive with the transit employee after the driver asked the man to pay. Surveillance video from the bus showed a verbal altercation between the driver and the suspect. The man in the video was then seen striking the driver in the face and then dragging him off the bus. AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION 11

14 A 34-year-old Detroit man was arraigned on assault charges after he allegedly used a knife to slash a bus driver who refused to transport him to an area hospital. Local bus drivers are on the lookout for a man who allegedly spat on and assaulted a CT Transit bus driver in New Haven earlier this month. A man sprayed a mysterious liquid into the face of an on-duty city bus driver in Brooklyn, making it difficult for him to breath. A woman was arraigned in Jackson City Court Monday after police said she threatened to cut a Jackson Transit Authority driver Saturday afternoon. A Quincy man was arrested late Tuesday night after police said he tried to stab an MBTA bus driver through a window. A group of kids sprayed a CTA bus driver with a fire extinguisher Tuesday night in the South Shore neighborhood. The bus driver was sprayed about 8:05 p.m. while he was picking up passengers at a bus stop in the 2600 block of East 79th Street, Chicago Police said. SPARTA, Ga. - A 63-year-old retiree is accused of lighting a bus driver s hair on fire, taking control of the Putnam Transit bus and leading police on a chase through two Georgia counties at speeds up to 95 mph, authorities said. One person has been arrested after a DDOT bus driver was attacked on the job early Thursday morning. The bus driver crashed after the attack. 12 OPEN MY EYES. SHIELD ME FROM HARM

15 The attack happened around 12:30 early Saturday morning when the female bus driver pulled off to the side of the road to call for help after the passenger started to become confrontational. Surveillance video shows the driver calling for help when the man grabs her from behind, grabbing at her neck and face. As she is screaming for help, another passenger jumps into action and starts beating the attacker with his cane, eventually breaking the cane on the attackers back. A man with a hunting knife robbed an MTA bus driver and then bashed her in the head with the butt of the weapon. The suspect climbed on the bus without paying and held up a piece of paper that read, Don t scream. Give me all your money, officials said. The driver looked over to see that the man had a large, serrated knife in his hand, they said. The driver handed over a $100 bill. The robber then reached around the partition and struck the woman in the forehead, according to police. A woman in a surgical mask sprayed a caustic substance in a city bus driver s face in Brooklyn, police said. The driver suffered discomfort and burning and went to the hospital for treatment. A Worcester man is accused of spitting in a Worcester Regional Transit Authority bus driver s face. According to prosecutors and police accounts, a passenger spat at bus driver on Dec. 30 because he was upset that the bus driver refused to stop to let him off where he wanted, rather than at the next designated bus stop. Chicago police have arrested a man who attacked a bus driver and a passenger -- with a bag of frozen chicken. Why the fowl play? Because, police say, he was trying to flirt with a woman, and she wasn t having it. Police say the passenger wasn t happy the woman didn t respond when he tried to talk to her. So he allegedly started hitting her with the bag of chicken. When the bus driver stopped the bus to help the woman, the attacker swung the bag at the driver, hitting him in the face, police said. The bus driver suffered a broken nose and jaw. He also lost a tooth. Police are asking for help finding the man who attacked a SEPTA bus driver in South Philadelphia. Philadelphia police on Friday released surveillance footage of the suspect in the Aug. 3 assault on the Route 37 bus driver. The suspect got off the bus on the 2000 block of South Broad Street about 3 a.m. and began arguing with the driver, police said. The man then got back on the bus and pummeled the driver, punching him, slamming his head into the dashboard and biting him, police said. After the attack, the assailant got off the bus and fled in an unknown direction. AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION 13

16 A Seattle man attacked the driver as the driver emerged from a Metro employees-only restroom around 10:15 p.m. Sunday at a bus stop on South Henderson Street. The suspect is accused of repeatedly punching the Route 7 driver in the face, knocking him to the ground. He then stabbed him four times in the abdomen, charges allege. As the driver tried to grab the knife and defend himself, the attacker bit him on the face. An HRT driver said he was at the end of his shift about 1 a.m. when he went to wake a passenger and tell him he had to get off the bus. After several attempts to rouse him, driver said he was reaching for his phone when the man got up and started punching him. A man on parole for murder is back in legal hot water after punching a bus driver in the Bronx and tussling with officers arresting him. A Metro Transit bus driver is recovering at home after suffering potentially life-altering head injuries when several teenagers assaulted him at a stop in a Minneapolis. A passenger on a Metrobus attacked the driver, then hijacked the vehicle in Northeast Washington on Tuesday morning, continuing for several blocks until he careened into a gas station and fatally struck a pedestrian, police said. 14 OPEN MY EYES. SHIELD ME FROM HARM

17 OPERATOR ASSAULTS ABQ Ride bus driver assaulted Albuquerque police and ABQ Ride still do not know exactly what led to a bus passenger assaulting a city bus driver Sunday, but it was all caught on camera. Watch video: Cameras catch latest assault on bus driver Another Kansas City bus driver has been assaulted by a passenger and again, bus surveillance cameras caught images of the attack and the person responsible for it. Watch video: Rise in VIA bus driver assaults prompts security changes With drivers under constant attack, many VIA bus operators say that they re afraid to go to work. Watch video: AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION 15

18 BLIND SPOTS Pedestrian dies after DART bus runs over him A pedestrian was killed after he was struck by a DART bus about midnight Tuesday near Samuell Boulevard and Hunnicut Road. Watch video: Investigation: Left-side mirrors a deadly flaw on SEPTA buses? Could a mirror that s on every single SEPTA bus be to blame for dozens of serious knockdown accidents? SEPTA bus drivers warn that the mirror is so big, it creates a dangerous blind spot. Watch video: Exclusive: KCATA Bus Blind Spots Watch video: 16 OPEN MY EYES. SHIELD ME FROM HARM

19 Larry Kester, 47, was stabbed in 2010 while operating an Omnitrans bus in Rialto, CA. He left behind a wife and eight children who ranged in age from 11 months to 17 years. Omnitrans had honored Kester with a dozen commendations for customer service and safety. He reached the Million Mile Club status granted to drivers who transfer more than 1 million passengers without a preventable accident. He won t reach 2 million. More importantly, his kids are growing up without their father. On a cold winter day in 2016, Devika Gunasekere, 67, was trying to cross Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda, MD at about 7:50 a.m when she was killed by a bus turning left. She was on the way to the Guiding Star Child Development Center where she was a teacher assistant. She enjoyed working with infants, toddlers and 2-year-olds. The native of Sri Lanka was married with two children. She enjoyed working with young children, as they reminded her of her grandson in Sri Lanka whom she missed. Now, the children at the center wonder what happened to their caregiver. ATU SUPPORTS: 1. Minimum safety performance standards for public transportation vehicles used in revenue operations in the United States resulting in the re-engineering of bus operator workstations. 2. Such workstations shall include, at a minimum: a. Low mounted, reasonably sized left side mirrors which allow operators, regardless of size, to adequately view pedestrians crossing in front of the bus; and b. Reasonably sized A pillars which allow operators, regardless of size, to adequately view pedestrians crossing in front of the bus; and c. An overall drivers area which eliminates blind spots to the greatest extent possible. d. Appropriate barriers to protect bus operators from the risk of assault; and e. A door or window (at least the same size as the passenger emergency window) allowing the driver safe and rapid emergency egress; and f. A panic button with a direct connection to local law enforcement.

20 AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION Lawrence J. Hanley International President New Hampshire Avenue Silver Spring, MD Tel: Toll Free: Fax: