MTA Bus Drivers Express Concern Following Recent Violent Incidents Along B15 Route To JFK Airport
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Multiple Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus drivers were attacked on the same route in less than a week.
Now, workers are demanding change to keep themselves and their riders safe.
The first time it was alarming. The second time, it was even scarier. But a third attack on the same route in just five days? Bus drivers told CBS2's Reena Roy on Tuesday that's unacceptable.
When asked how he feels driving his bus everyday, Shea Alijah told CBS2's Roy, "Unsafe, unsafe, definitely unsafe."
"I'm feeling very uncomfortable, you know," driver Jeremy Brown added.
They work the B15 route from Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn to John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, and want the suspect caught. The NYPD said the same man is behind all three incidents.
"It's a very stressful situation, driving the bus not knowing (that) any moment you might get attacked, customer may get hurt," Alijah said.
"Three incidents in one week, that doesn't speak good of the route," Brown said.
Investigators told Roy the first two incidents happened within hours of each other last Thursday, with a passenger spraying an unknown substance on each driver and running off.
Then on Monday, the Transport Workers Union said a B15 bus was stopped when a man approached the bus. The driver opened and then quickly shut the window when the suspect flashed an aerosol can and then banged on the glass before smashing it. All three drivers were taken to local hospitals, treated and released.
"They come out, they look for trouble and buses are an easy target," Alijah said.
The union said the MTA has agreed to put only camera-equipped buses on that route, but now workers are calling on the NYPD to put cops on board.
"The union is doing a good job with placing cameras on the bus, but there needs to be more police presence," driver Robert McConney said. "I'm hoping they ride the bus and catch the assailants.
"It would be a big difference because eventually crime will go down," Alijah said.
The union is hoping to meet with the NYPD as soon as possible to talk about how they can work together to keep both drivers and commuters safe.
CBS2 reached out to the NYPD for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
