Coronavirus Update: MTA Bus Driver, Conductor Die Of COVID-19
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The MTA is mourning two employees who died of complications from the coronavirus.
The Transport Workers Union said 61-year-old bus driver Oliver Cyrus and 49-year-old conductor Peter Petrassi died Thursday. Both men were MTA veterans with more than 20 years on the job.
TWU President Tony Utano said losing two members in one day was "a terrible and incredibly sad loss."
"Transit workers, Police, Firefighters, EMS and health care workers and other essential public employees have put themselves into harm's way for the greater good of our City and our society," he said in a statement. "They are true heroes."
The union is now calling on the MTA to provide masks to frontline transit workers.
"The MTA must NOW provide masks to frontline transit workers. Otherwise, the moment is rapidly approaching where bus and subway workers will do what is necessary to protect themselves and their families," said Utano. "Dedication and duty does not mean using transit workers as cannon fodder."
The NYPD also lost one of its own Thursday. Longtime police headquarters custodian Dennis Dickson died from COVID-19 at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn.
