Transit Workers Continue to Face Attacks

Newark, N.J. (WorkersCompensation.com) – Transit officials in New Jersey are hoping that a new law will reduce the number of attacks on train conductors and bus drivers – the number of which have tripled since 2019.   

In January, the Motorbus and Passenger Rail Service Employee Violence Prevention Act went into effect. The new law would upgrade penalties for attacks on NJ Transit workers to a minimum third-degree aggravated assault. It would allow let the transit agency ban anyone who assaults a transit worker from using the service for up to a year, and ban for life anyone who attacks a transit worker with a deadly weapon.   

NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin Corbett said incidents are expected when an organization is moving close to a million people a day. But, he said, the number of incidents has risen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as ridership has dropped.  

“We noticed a significant increase. In 2020 we had 158 assaults and 2021 we had 183,” he told Town Square Media. That number is more than triple the average number of annual assaults reported on transit workers.   

Corbett transit employee and officials hope the new law will deter assaults.   

“You know it’s one thing if somebody has a temper issue verbally, but when it actually gets to physical assault or spitting, we wanted to get more teeth in that, so there would be more serious consequences,” he said. 

Whether the attacks were caused by mask mandates or other frustrations, there is no excuse for assaults on transit workers, Corbett said.   

“They’re out there every day doing their best; they’ve done a great job during COVID, providing that essential service that so many needed,” he said. “If people think they can get away with it, somebody will punch a female ticket collector who’s just doing her job. We want to make sure the most serious consequences are taken for people who think they can get away with that.” 

 It’s not just a New Jersey problem, officials said.   

On Tuesday, in Lower Manhattan, officials said a group of young people attacked an on-duty subway conductor, the transit union said.   

According to the Transport Workers Union spokesman Pete Donohue said that on Monday night, a group of teens threw rocks at a train conductor at the Chambers Street station, striking her in the face and  chest. The MTA tweeted that there were delays on two trains while the NYPD and EMS responded to the assault to help the assaulted employee.  

 Donohue said the employee was taken to the hospital and was “very shaken up by the attack.”  

The attack was one of at least nine reported in the subway since Friday, Feb. 19.  

Mayor Eric Adams is expected to release a new subway safety plan that would include dispatching teams from various city agencies that would look to help those experiencing homelessness who are using the subway system as shelter while working to address crime with additional police officers.  

 And on Tuesday, a Chicago train conductor was robbed at gunpoint.  

 Officials said the conductor of the Metra Electric Line was approached by a passenger who pulled a black semi-automatic handgun on him and stole the conductor’s petty cash – about $100. The suspect fled on foot.  

 Later that day, police released surveillance images of the robbery. Around 8 p.m., police said, a woman brought the suspect to the station to turn him in. The woman, the suspect’s mother, recognized her son from surveillance videos and turned him in. The suspect was identified as Zion Brown, 18, a student at Loyola University.  

Brown’s attorney told the judge during arraignment that Brown committed the crime because he was hungry and needed a snack before class. The judge didn’t buy the excuse and denied Brown’s bail.   

According to the Chicago Transit Authority assaults, battery, robberies and thefts have increased 35 percent between December 2021 and January 2022, compared to the same period a year ago. In Seattle, drug use on Seattle-area buses and trains have led to increases in violent behavior against drivers and passengers, officials said.   

And in Charlotte, N.C., transit officials said assaults are at a four-year high. There were assaults 14 in 2021; 11 in 2020; seven in 2019 and eight in 2018.   

Recently, a Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) driver was killed by an irate driver.   

CATS said bus driver Ethan Rivera was killed on Feb. 11.   

Rivera was driving a bus in Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officials said, when there was what was believed to be a road rage incident. The driver of another vehicle shot into a bus, striking Rivera. Rivera later died from his injuries.   

Officials identified the suspect as 21-year-old Darian Dru Thavychith of Charlotte.   

The attacks have continued, officials said, including an attack on a CATS driver where a passenger spit in their face, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police spokesman Lt. Stephen Fischbach said during a news conference Feb. 22.   

“It’s important to realize that our bus drivers are public servants who literally drive this city,” Fischbach said. “Many of our neighbors depend on CATS bus drivers to get them to work, school and then back home again to their families.”  

CATS said it uses “high-definition technology” that looks at what’s happening “in and around” its vehicles, CEO John Lewis said during the press conference. In addition, the transit system has installed barriers to give drivers a “sense of security,” he said. The staff is also provided with de-escalation training, he said, and CATS uses a private firm, G4S, in addition to off-duty CMPD officers, to provide armed and unarmed security.   

Because of the danger inherent in their jobs, as well as their exposure to COVID-19, transit workers deserve hazard pay, the East Bay (California) Democratic Socialists of America said.   

“In California’s East Bay, even when most residents were isolating at home, AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District - an Oakland, Cal.-based public transit agency), bus operators were on the front lines ensuring that people could get where they needed to go, including to other essential jobs,” the group wrote. “Bus operators spend hours every day in close contact with strangers. More than 200 transit workers have perished from COVID. ... Despite this tragedy, and while it has touted their essential work in the press, AC Transit has yet to award hazard pay to frontline employees. The agency currently has a budget surplus of well over $66 million dollars, thanks to the federal relief money it received.”