WEST Vancouver's transit union is again raising the alarm over safety after a pair of young passengers allegedly broke a bus driver's nose during a drunken scuffle.
The confrontation arose just after midnight Nov. 12 when the victim was doing a late run along Marine Drive near West Vancouver's Lighthouse Park. The driver, noticing two riders near the back of the bus who appeared to be drinking, stopped the vehicle and told them to get off. When they refused, he got out of his seat to confront them, according to Geoff Devlin, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union local that represents the driver.
The argument escalated, and the suspects allegedly attacked the driver, breaking his nose and bruising him in the face and hand before leaving the bus, he said. The victim called the West Vancouver police, who arrived
quickly, tracked down the suspected assailants and arrested them.
Investigators have since recommended charges of assault causing bodily harm against the teens, 16 and 17 years old, both from West Vancouver.
The incident, which left the driver badly shaken, highlights the need for better protection for operators, said Devlin.
Verbal assaults and spitting incidents arise on a daily basis across the system, he said, and physical assaults of this type happen far too frequently. The union has recorded three in the past six months in West Vancouver alone.
"It just seems to be rife right now," said Devlin. "It's getting beyond a joke."
Devlin said the problem isn't taken seriously because the victims are bus drivers, rather than employees in another line of work. "How would you like it if someone came into your office and punched you or spat on you or gave you verbal abuse because your paper wasn't delivered on time?" he said.
The WVPD responds rapidly to calls from drivers, said Devlin, but preventative measures need to be put in place as well.
Many confrontations arise when passengers become frustrated by overcrowding or delayed service, he said. Adding more buses to some routes might help defray those tensions, but in the case of latenight or drunken altercations - when service isn't really the issue - something else is needed, said Devlin.
He suggested physical barriers of the type that have been in place in his native Scotland for 30 years or more. The idea seems to have fallen on deaf ears in the Lower Mainland, however, said Devlin.
Gareth Rowlands, transit manager for West Vancouver, acknowledged that the suggestion had been raised in the past, but said there were no plans to install them.
"We're always open to discussions as to how we can increase safety," he said, but noted that physical assaults were very rare in comparison to verbal confrontations. Rowland said the three-in-six-months figure sounded about right, but that in the year before that he could recall only one spitting incident and no physical attacks.
Blue Buses will be getting security cameras in January. Rowland said he hoped the devices, which are designed to monitor the entire interior of the vehicle, will help not only to identify suspects but also to deter attacks.
The issue of violence against transit operators came to the forefront last month when a 17year-old from North Vancouver was handed a year's probation for participating in the vicious beating of a driver in Lynn Valley in November 2010.
jweldon@nsnews.com
