Winnipeg Transit drivers under siege, want protection

Transit drivers in Winnipeg are demanding better protection following a weekend assault on a driver.

A 35-year-old woman was arrested and charged with assault by police after she punched the female driver in the head Saturday night ataround 10 p.m.

This year has been a violent one for bus drivers, with27 assaulted so far compared to 11 in the same timeframe in 2008.

In the latest incident, witnesses told CBC News the driver of the Route 16-Selkirk bus stopped the vehicle and told the woman, who was getting rowdy, to get off the bus. The woman had been getting loud and demanding the driver go faster.

The attack happened when the driver requested the woman leave. Other passengers on the bus intervened to help the driver, who is recovering, said Keith Scott, president of Local 1505 of the Amalgamated Transit Union.

He said the union and Winnipeg Transit have struck a committee to recommend ways of making the job safer, a committee that is comprised of management, the union and drivers. They are studying everything from full Plexiglas walls to protect drivers, to security guards who would ride the buses.

At the very minimum, Scott hopes to have Transit install protective shields or a "spit guard" near drivers' heads. Similar protective devices are already being used in city taxi cabs.

"They [incidents] are anything from, I guess you'd say profanity, to actual physical assaults being spat upon, that type of thing as well," Scott said. "There was an instance where an operator was hit by an object in a sock, actually struck over the head."

Recommendations on safety measures are expected to be forwarded to Transit by the end of the year, Scott said.