South Australian bus drivers call for shields ahead of violence summit
Barriers to keep violent passengers safely out of range should be installed on SA buses, drivers say, as they prepare to meet police and MPs over a spike in assaults. VOTE IN OUR POLL
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Bus operators, politicians and police will hold a special safety summit next week to tackle the surge of attacks on the state’s bus drivers.
The Transport Workers Union said there should be zero tolerance to acts of violence and abuse from passengers has become an ugly trend.
There has been eight serious assaults on bus drivers in the past three months, with the TWU saying dozens more are not reported.
“Physical or verbal abuse should never be part of any job, but that is sadly still a reality for many hardworking bus drivers,’’ said TWU state secretary Ian Smith, pictured.
“The stress of working under tight timetables, road rage and handling fare evasion just compounds the issues related to passenger aggression inside the bus.”
Mr Smith said the increase in violence against bus drivers was a trend, not a spike, and not something drivers expected when behind the wheel.
“There is wider crisis engulfing our bus network where bus driver abuse has become so normalised it is simply seen as part of the job,’’ he said.
The State Opposition has also committed to attend the summit, but Mr Smith said the Department of Transport and Minister Stephan Knoll had not yet agreed.
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Mr Smith said the summit would agree on additional measures which could be taken to protect drivers, including more secured shielding of the driving compartment of buses, which currently only have a perspex shield covering half the entrance to the area.
“The first and easiest way to improve safety is to target harden our bus drivers by installing full driver protection systems on all buses,’’ he said.
“According to our recent driver survey, more than 75 per cent of bus drivers think the current safety screens are inadequate and 82 per cent want the full driver protection systems implemented.’’