Tension and trauma aboard Transit

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This article was published 04/11/2018 (2246 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

During the past seven years, Winnipeg Transit has averaged an assault on a bus every week, with certain routes showing significantly higher levels of violence than others.

Data obtained by the Free Press through freedom of information requests show that while the number of assaults fluctuates from year to year, there has not been a significant spike in attacks.

The number of attacks — which include anything from relatively minor physical altercations to violent assaults — has ranged between 43 and 62 annually.

The worst year for attacks was 2015. Last year, there were 51 such attacks and so far in 2018, there have been 38.

Route 16, which runs from the city’s northwest through downtown to Island Lakes and south Fort Garry, and Route 18, which is from Garden City to downtown and south to Assiniboine Park, have recorded the most incidents, at 40 and 35 assaults, respectively.

The driver claims management often punishes or suspends operators for physically defending themselves or demanding riders pay fares, so many employees don’t report assaults and confrontations.

“People are not even calling in their assaults anymore, because (management) is suspending drivers for trying to stick up for themselves. If someone gets in my face and I hold them back until the police come, I’ll be suspended,” the driver said.

“I know drivers that have been spit on, attacked. I’ve been spit on. People will not report. It’s not called in because they know what’s going to happen.”

Since the death of Irvine (Jubal) Fraser, a Winnipeg Transit operator who was stabbed to death by a passenger on Feb. 14, 2017, the people behind the wheel have felt increasingly on edge, the driver said.

While Transit has implemented several new protocols since the slaying, the driver said the result has been harsher punishment and longer suspensions for operators.

“Since his death, drivers are — it’s just intense out there. And things are getting worse. I feel like there’s widespread frustration among the drivers,” he said.

“Edmonton had an incident and apparently they’re now looking at fitting buses with shields. We had a murder and two years later we have four shields. It’s borderline ridiculous. Those things should have been in immediately.”

He said that although Transit denies it, surveillance cameras installed on buses are being used as evidence against drivers when it comes to how they deal with fare disputes or violent passengers.

Transit’s manager of operations, Randy Tonnellier, said the pilot project to test the viability of outfitting the bus fleet with shields recently came to an end. A decision on whether to add shields would be made soon.

Tonnellier pointed to protocol changes that have been implemented in the wake of Fraser’s death as evidence the department has taken action to bolster safety, including the hiring of nine additional inspectors.

He said it looks like 2018 could see a slight dip in assaults, which means recent policy changes could be having a positive effect. He said its crucial that drivers report all incidents to management, adding it’s “very rare” for drivers to face disciplinary action for how they handle altercations.

“We always encourage them to report incidents as soon as they happen. We also focus on those incidents with a sort of safety lens,” Tonnellier said.

“Our main response is always to train, re-instruct, coach and to help people through what are sometimes really difficult situations. At the end of the day, we want to keep our employees safe, but we need to know what’s happening on the street so we can keep them safe.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
graeme.bruce@freepress.mb.ca

Ryan Thorpe
Reporter

Ryan Thorpe likes the pace of daily news, the feeling of a broadsheet in his hands and the stress of never-ending deadlines hanging over his head.

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