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Filed (End of Session)
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Referred to Comm by Council
City Council
Introduced by Council

Res. No. 255

 

Resolution calling upon the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to equip its buses with partitions designed to protect the bus operator.

 

By Council Members Eugene, Crowley, Chin, Constantinides, King, Koo, Lancman, Rose, Cumbo, Mendez and Richards

 

                     Whereas, The State of New York recognizes the particular risks mass transit employees face during the course of performing their duties by considering the assault of such workers a Class D felony; and

                     Whereas, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and transit worker union representatives have testified and raised concerns regarding the extent of the safety issues faced by transit workers as well as various measures that could be designed to address such issues; and

                     Whereas, It has become readily apparent that bus operators are at particular risk of assault and personal injury as a result of direct interactions with bus riders; and

                     Whereas, Between January and mid-November 2013, 79 New York City Transit bus drivers were physically assaulted; and                     

                     Whereas, Particularly heinous attacks on bus operators in recent years include the 2008 murder of bus driver Edwin Thomas in Brooklyn, as well as the assault of bus driver Nelson Diaz in the Bronx in September 2012 by a passenger who refused to pay his fare; and

                     Whereas, State-of-the-art enclosures designed to protect bus operators from random acts of violence are in use on several mass transit systems including New Jersey Transit and Miami-Dade Transit; and

                     Whereas, As of November 2013, only 1,505 of the MTA’s 4,560 local buses were outfitted with driver safety partitions; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to equip its buses with partitions designed to protect the bus operator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LS 4183 (Session 9) & LS 1237 (Session 10)

5/21/2014

JM