NEW YORK – An MTA bus driver was stabbed and slashed by a passenger in Brooklyn simply for doing his job, as the suspect became angry after the driver did not allow him to board the bus through the back door, according to police. .
The 39-year-old driver was operating a bus that served as an overnight shuttle during repairs along the subway’s Q line. A source with knowledge of the investigation said the bus was stopped at a stoplight near Ocean and Flatbush avenues in Prospect Lefferts Garden between stops when three men tried to board it shortly after midnight Tuesday.
The driver was not authorized to let people on between stops, but one of the men allegedly tried to get on the back door of the bus anyway.
“He opened the back door and it was very violent,” said JP Patafio of the TWU Local 100 union.
Once the door was broken, the bus could not be driven, so the driver made the passengers get off the bus. That’s when police say the driver and the suspect got into an argument.
The suspect allegedly cut the driver with a knife on the left side and above the eye, according to union officials. The other two men got in and threatened the driver with knives, police said.
“The bus driver fought back and we’re very glad he’s not dead, frankly,” Patafio said. “If that knife had penetrated a few more inches, we would be talking about a death.”
Police later released images of the three men they believe to be responsible for the attack.
Union members gathered outside the hospital where the driver was being treated later Tuesday. Authorities said he is expected to recover, but that does little to reassure the union, which is asking for more protection.
“Without a safe operator, there will never be a safe passenger. We need police,” union president Richard Thorne said.
The union said members also want cockpits, similar to those used by pilots, to protect drivers. They said passengers could be the ones to suffer if drivers don’t feel safe going to work, suggesting possible employment action.
“If we don’t get the protection we need, then you won’t get the service you need,” Patafio said. “They [la MTA] They’re ordering 500 new buses, we need them with bus operator compartments, we need police to show their faces more often on buses.”
No arrests have been made yet. An investigation is ongoing.
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