Attack on CTA bus driver sparks renewed safety concerns from employees

A CTA bus driver was brutally attacked on Monday while in uniform in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, and other drivers who said they've also been attacked on the job are demanding the agency do more to protect them.

The driver went into a local bakery while on a quick break at 47th and Ashland, and was attacked when he stepped outside.

A witness said the driver was stopped by another man on the street, who might have followed him off the bus.

Surveillance video shows the man repeatedly punching the driver as he was lying on the curb.

A good Samaritan who stopped to help took the driver into the nearby bakery.

At a protest outside CTA headquarters on Wednesday, people who know and work with the driver called for change.

"He was hurt, badly, and that's why I'm here; not just for myself, but for him," said Tiffany Hardmon, who has worked for CTA for eight years. "He has a family. He has small children. He has people that depend on him."

She and other CTA employees described their experiences of being attacked at work.

Bus driver Mia Berry said someone tossed hairspray on her.

"A young lady got on my bus, didn't want to pay her fare, but she doused me from head to toe, and now I have to wear glasses," she said.

Fellow bus driver Marlo Mullins said he has been spat on and hit in the face.

"Why? Just because I got up this morning to go to work to perform a job and be assaulted?" she said.

The protest came a day after the CTA presented a new security plan to the Federal Transit Administration, which has threatened to pull $50 million in federal funding if the CTA does not come up with an acceptable plan to reduce crime on trains and buses.

The CTA has committed to increasing monthly policing hours by 75% by boosting patrols by the Chicago Police Department Public Transit Section, doubling the number of off-duty CPD officers patrolling CTA on their days off, and adding patrols by Cook County Sheriff's police officers.

The new plan also calls for more officers riding buses and monitoring bus stops in high-crime areas.

CTA employees demanded even more security measures.

"We don't know when we get up in the morning and get on that bus if we're going to make it home. We don't know that," Hardmon said.

The most recent data shows that, from Jan. 1 through Feb. 8, overall crime on the CTA dropped by about 7% compared to the same time period last year. However, criminal sexual assaults and aggravated batteries were more frequent.

A CTA spokesperson said the agency's employees "will always have a say in the agency's security approach" and that feedback from employees was used to help design their latest security plan.

"The CTA's revised security enhancement plan reflects years of feedback from its workers, including bus operators. The agency has gathered feedback from these employees in a variety of ways, who've said that they value and appreciate law enforcement on the system and the agency listened," CTA spokesman Manny Gonzales said in an email. 

Gonzales said the bus driver who was attacked in Back of the Yards was off duty at the time

Police said no one was in custody in Monday's attack. The CTA said they were assisting police with their investigation of the attack.

Full statement from CTA on new safety plan:

The CTA's revised security enhancement plan reflects years of feedback from its workers, including bus operators. The agency has gathered feedback from these employees in a variety of ways, who've said that they value and appreciate law enforcement on the system and the agency listened.

Based on this feedback, Chicago Police are already executing missions where they patrol bus routes with the highest crime and fare evasion rates, and they are also be stationed at bus stops in high-crime areas during peak hours.

CTA's employees will always have a say in the agency's security approach. The bottom line: this plan is designed around what workers told the agency they need to feel safe.