Ryan Bridge: Why would you want to be a bus driver?

Yesterday, a driver and fellow passengers all witnessed a stabbing take place, and the person died. 

This is 2:30 in the afternoon on a bus in suburban Auckland, and someone is allegedly stabbed to death. 

There's been beatings of passengers and drivers, I don't have to explain this, you've seen the headlines. The problem of driver safety seems to only be getting worse. 

I was walking past the bus just a few weeks back, there was a guy, he looked wild in the eyes. You know the ones that I'm talking about, swearing and yelling and walking up to buses and kicking their doors. 

So every time a bus would come along the guy would just kick the door and he did it to several of them. I didn't say anything. I was with other people; they didn't say anything because you're just worried he's going to go nuts at you. 

But we could carry on walking down the road, when you work on public transport, you cannot escape the public. 

And when the public is increasingly hostile, there are more and more bad eggs on the bus, where do you go to? 

Nowhere. You can't go anywhere. 

And the long-promised safety screens are finally being installed. 

But, as we heard on this show a couple of months back, it'll take another two years to even get to 80% coverage. 

There are plenty of safe bus journeys out there, plenty of drivers who love what they do. No doubt about that. 

But the more you hear about these awful acts of violence on or around our drivers, you've got to ask yourself, is it worth the risk? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Why would you want to be a bus driver. Yesterday
a driver, fellow passengers all witnessed a stabbing take place
and the person died. This is two thirty in the
afternoon on a bus in suburban Auckland and someone is
stabbed to death. There's been beatings of passengers and drivers.
I don't have to explain this. You've seen the headlines.

(00:20):
The problem of drivers safety seems to only be getting worse.
I was walking past a bus just a few weeks back.
There was a guy. He looked wild in the eyes.
You know the ones that just look crazy, You know
the ones that I'm talking about, swearing and yelling and
walking up to buses and kicking their doors. So every
time a bus would come along, the guy would just
kick their door, and he did it to several of them.

(00:42):
I didn't say anything. I was with other people. They
didn't say anything because you're just worried he's going to
go nuts at you. But we could carry on walking
down the road. When you work on public transport, you
cannot escape the public. And when the public is increasingly hostile,
there are more and more bad eggs on the bus.

(01:03):
Where do you go to? Nowhere? You can't go anywhere,
and the long promised safety screens are finally being installed,
but as we heard on the show a couple of
months back, it'll take another two years to even get
to eighty percent coverage. There are plenty of safe bus
journeys out there, plenty of drivers who love what they do,
no doubt about that. But the more you hear about

(01:24):
these awful acts of violence on or around our drivers,
you've got to ask yourself, is it worth the risk?
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