Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Attacks on SEPTA drivers are double this year over last

THINK coal-mining and police work are dangerous? Try driving a bus in Philadelphia. One day after a gunman's bullet hit a SEPTA bus, shattering glass into the driver's eyes, SEPTA officials said that the number of attacks on SEPTA operators has more than doubled in the past year.

THINK coal-mining and police work are dangerous? Try driving a bus in Philadelphia.

One day after a gunman's bullet hit a SEPTA bus, shattering glass into the driver's eyes, SEPTA officials said that the number of attacks on SEPTA operators has more than doubled in the past year.

Twenty SEPTA drivers were assaulted in all of 2010, compared to 50 already this year, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said.

"Everybody wants to blame it on one thing, and that's the economy," Williams said. "People are upset and angry and looking for a fall guy. It's like road rage."

Since early last year, SEPTA has been outfitting its buses with security cameras, a federal Homeland Security-funded initiative to increase safety on public-transit systems. About a third of SEPTA's buses have cameras installed, Williams said.

John Johnson, president of Transport Workers Union Local 234, said yesterday: "There is an attack almost every week on a bus operator, and they are telling me, 'John, we can't do our jobs if we're being assaulted while we're operating the bus.' "

Johnson said that he hopes to meet with Mayor Nutter and Philadelphia police officials soon to discuss his members' safety fears.

"When our people are operating a bus late at night and they are laying over [waiting to begin a route] in an isolated area that may not have the best lighting, I would like to see police officers come by, say hello to the bus operator and do a walk-through of the bus to give passengers a sense of security, too. I'd like to see police officers working hand-in-hand with the TWU to prevent assaults."

Johnson said that he'd also like to have undercover officers on some buses.

The latest attack occurred about 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, when a No. 6 bus, stopped for a layover in East Mount Airy on Cheltenham Avenue near Ogontz, got caught in the crossfire of a shooting. A 22-year-old man caught bullets in the arm and leg; he remained last night in stable condition at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

The driver, 59, whose name SEPTA declined to release, was injured when the windshield shattered and glass flew into his eyes.

"[The driver] was bleeding," said Chanda Jones, 42, a photography student who happened upon the scene. "It looked like from his eye, and there was blood all over his face and clothes. He seemed a little disoriented, but he was standing and coherent."

No passengers were on the bus at the time of the shooting, Williams said.

The gunman was described as a clean-shaven, stocky black man with a light complexion, about 22 years old and 5-feet-9. Tipsters should call Northwest Detectives at 215-686-3353.

- Staff writer Dan Geringer

contributed to this report