Video shows CTA bus driver being attacked; head of Chicago transit union worries about safety
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A recent attack on a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver was caught on camera, and the head of the drivers' union said it was targeted.
Keith Hill, president of Amalgamated Transit Union 241, is also worried about driver safety heading into summer.
The video shows a CTA bus driver fighting someone as passengers looked on.
"The request of two dollars and 50 cents to ride the bus triggered an altercation," Hill said.
The attack happened at 9:06 p.m. Friday of last week, police said.
The person who was asked to pay and did not was not the man seen fighting the driver in the video, but a woman who had jumped on the No. 79 bus 20 minutes earlier at Ford City Mall.
"She started going back and forth with the operator, to the point she called another person – assumedly her boyfriend - to meet her to fight the operator," Hill said.
The No. 79, 79th Street bus route is the CTA's busiest. On this occasion, the eastbound bus traveled some seven miles – from Cicero Avenue all the way to Cottage Grove Avenue – with the woman verbally threatening the driver the whole time.
Hill said once the driver heard the woman calling for backup, he too radioed for police help.
But nobody came, Hill said.
"We're out here by ourselves. We don't see police. They haven't provided us with any security or anything," said Hill. "We've got no choice but to defend ourselves."
The driver eventually opened the security glass and defended himself – which was what was happening at the point where the video started, The woman from earlier tried getting back on board to help in the fight.
"We're blessed there were no weapons used - it was just a physical altercation," said Hill.
Chicago Police responded once others called 911. But that was well after the driver's own call.
Police arrested the woman, but the man got away.
"Nobody is securing the buses," Hill said. "We have no presence."
Hill said passengers are fully aware of it too.
"We're not going to be sitting ducks this summer," Hill said.
Hill worries this is only the prelude of what his drivers could see as the weather warms up.
"How many more of these we got to take?" he said. "When is someone actually going to hear our cry?"
Hill has been calling for a stronger police presence, and even wants the CTA to bring back its own police force – separate from the CPD.
The bus driver was treated by first responders for a laceration above his right eye after the attack, but refused further medical attention. Calumet Area police detectives are investigating the attack.
