NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A bus driver was punched on the Upper West Side on Thursday morning—the latest bus driver to be assaulted in the city as the transit workers union pushes for bulletproof compartments for drivers.
The victim, a 36-year-old man, was operating a bus at West 107th Street and Broadway around 2 a.m. when a woman got into an argument with him, police said.
During the dispute, she suddenly punched him in the face, according to police.
She ran off, and he was transported to Mt. Sinai St. Luke's in stable condition.
The attack came as the NYPD released images Thursday of another woman wanted for hurling a water bottle at the face of a bus operator in the Bronx.
TWU Local 100 said this week that it was pushing for bulletproof driving compartments to protect drivers in New York City and other cities.
The union attended a ballistics demonstration in Pennsylvania, where SWAT officers fired on a bulletproof bus compartment that’s believed to be the first of its kind in the country. It was designed after a Philadelphia bus operator was fatally shot in 2023.
“This safety measure is necessary because of the outrageous and grotesque level of violence against front-line transit workers,” TWU International President John Samuelsen said in a statement.
“We need to completely encapsulate Bus Operators to protect them from all sorts of attacks and threats, including gunfire. It’s unacceptable that Bus Operators leaving home for work worry they might wind up in the emergency room, or worse,” Samuelsen said.
The MTA said in late 2023 that it was testing a "fully enclosed operator compartment prototype," expanding the physical barriers that have partially enclosed all bus operators since 2017.