At least 4 bus drivers in US attacked for asking riders to wear masks this month

A baseball bat beating in California, a two-by-four attack in Texas, and a bone-breaking sucker punch in New York are a few violent incidents that underscore another danger for public bus drivers in a coronavirus world — and they all happened this month.

Public transit workers, like many others deemed essential in the coronavirus pandemic, are finding themselves at the frontline of mask enforcement. Asking passengers to cover up their nose and mouth is now just another part of the job, as is the risk that comes with it.

There have been at least four attacks on bus drivers this month in the US, including three in the space of two weeks.

A trio of young men attacked a San Francisco bus driver with a bat because he told them to get off after they repeatedly refused to mask up, the SFist reported Friday.

The MTA in New York is looking for the man who punched a 62-year-old driver in the face after he stopped the man for not wearing a face covering, according to CBS.

“This is a despicable attack on a hero moving this city during a pandemic and simply trying to protect the safety of all customers,” NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg said.

On July 16, a passenger on a Citibus in Lubbock, Texas struck the driver with a two-by-four wooden board, stepped off and smashed mirrors and windows, leaving lacerations on the driver’s head, all apparently triggered by demands that he wear a mask, McClatchy News reported.

A bus driver was attacked this month on July 5, in Brooklyn. The driver woke up in an ambulance with a busted lip and a broken bone near his eye when a passenger, angered over the mask requirement, hit him in the head so hard he lost consciousness, The City reported.

There have been over 400 violent encounters with MTA transit workers since Mid-April, and 76 of those were defined as being “COVID-related,” meaning due to disagreements over social distancing or face cover mandates, according to The City.

“Once you come on the bus it’s protocol,” the veteran driver said. “The virus can be passed on to me or to the innocent riding public. I was just doing my job.”

A bus driver in Bayonne, France was just doing his job, too, earlier this month when he told a group of four passengers to wear masks and they beat him to death for it, McClatchy News reported.

COVID-19 exposure risks

Risk of attack comes alongside risk of exposure to coronavirus, which has taken the lives of many transit workers.

One Detroit bus driver went viral during the early days of the pandemic, complaining on Facebook Live about an unmasked passenger coughing without covering her mouth — four days later he was in quarantine, and as COVID-19 burned through his body, it eventually killed him, McClatchy News reported.

By early June, 130 MTA workers had died due to COVID-19, AM New York Metro reported. At least 7 Philadelphia transit workers had died in a similar time frame, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 6:10 PM.