‘You’re a sitting duck’: Halifax Transit union calls for more protection after drivers assaulted | Globalnews.ca

The president of the union representing transit drivers in HRM is calling for more protection after two drivers were allegedly assaulted by a passenger Monday night.

Ken Wilson, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 508, said a bus operator was at the Scotia Square terminal and had a passenger that became aggressive. Another bus driver got on board to help.

“The other operator got between him and her, and the passenger still managed to punch the shield, knocking the phone out of her hand, and became extremely aggressive, yelling and screaming,” said Wilson.

In a release, Halifax Regional Police said officers responded to the incident on the Halifax Transit bus around 9:45 p.m.

They said the passenger left the bus on foot and was later spotted by a transit supervisor and arrested. The 51-year-old man will appear in Halifax Provincial Court at a later date to face one count of assault.

It said the driver was not injured.

‘It needs to stop’

Wilson said there have been seven physical assaults against bus drivers in the last two months. He said the pandemic has been difficult on everybody and some passengers are taking their frustrations out on drivers.

“A lot of our riders are stressed, dealing with mental health challenges, homelessness, the price of food and everything else, it takes very little to set somebody off today,” he said.

“And the front-line transit operators are dealing with this on a daily basis. If it’s not physical, it’s been verbal.”

1:58
Bus Driver Attack

Those verbal assaults have been “through the roof,” he said.

“If you’re female you’re being called derogatory names, if you’re a BIPOC member you’re being called racialized names,” said Wilson. “It’s just disgusting and it needs to stop.”

Wilson said drivers need more than just the thin polycarbonate shields, which were installed during COVID-19, to protect them.

While assaults against drivers decreased in the early days of the pandemic as ridership dwindled, during the third wave he noticed an uptick in assaults against drivers.

“Passengers were ripping off shields to get to the driver, because they’re only on a couple of hinges and a magnet that secures them,” said Wilson, who himself was assaulted in a road rage incident while on the job back in 2007.

“I know what it’s like to be threatened, I know what it’s like to be physically confronted when you’re stuck behind the wheel of a bus. You’re almost pinned in there, you can’t get out.”

He added that drivers are fearful of defending themselves when they’re assaulted because they could get in trouble with their employer.

“You’re a sitting duck,” he said.

1:51
BC Transit installing barriers to protect drivers from assault

Wilson wants to see driver protection systems — a barrier to prevent passengers from assaulting drivers — installed on all Halifax buses.

“It locks, it has a thick window, tempered glass that can protect the driver,” he said. “Right now, the driver basically has no protection.”

The union held an operator survey in 2018, where 86 per cent of respondents said they wanted driver protection systems installed on all new buses.

Back in 2019, when the city issued a request for proposals for a contractor to provide up to 150 new transit buses, it included the option of having such a system to “prevent sudden intrusion into the bus operator’s area.”

However, those systems were optional and weren’t included in the final design of the buses.

Wilson said he was told during a labour management meeting last month that it’s due to the cost of the system, which can run about $10,000, depending on the bus it’s being installed in.

“For a city employer to put cost over safety sends off all kinds of red flags and bells and alarms,” he said.

Wilson noted that having security cameras on buses is mandatory, and said having the shields should be prioritized over cameras.

“The cameras are good for the employer to monitor their equipment, their assets,” he said. “But a camera’s only going to record an operator getting assaulted. It’s not going to stop the assault.”

Global News has reached out to the city for comment.

Meanwhile, Wilson would like to see other safety measures considered as well, such as hiring police officers specifically for transit, to protect drivers from being assaulted on the job.

“I think everybody — every Canadian, every worker in the world — deserves to be able to go to work and come home and not have the risk of being assaulted or, God forbid, lose your life,” he said.