SASKATOON -- Myron Skoberne has been using Saskatoon Transit for the last eight months, parking his car because of a health issue.
In that time, he hasn’t liked what he’s seen when it comes to the protection and safety of bus drivers.
“I’ve talked to several drivers, and a lot of them have had assaults, spit on,” he said, adding that he’s found several items on buses including a knife. “There’s been liquor bottles on the bus, people on drugs, people severely drunk, people severely out of control on the bus, I found a syringe on my seat next to the wall.”
He’s calling for protective barriers or shields to be installed by Saskatoon Transit to provide better protection for drivers.
On Wednesday, the Saskatoon Amalgamated Transit Union sent a letter to City Council supporting Saskatoon Transit’s plan to install vinyl barriers for drivers when fare collection and front door loading resume with Phase 3 of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan.
The union also wants “permanent shields replace the vinyl barrier in the near future not only to help reduce the spread of Covid 19 but to also prevent driver assaults.”
“At this point in time I don’t have it in my capital profile,” said Saskatoon Transit director Jim McDonald. “That would have to be an addition that we would put in, and we would need to find a source of funding for that as well.”
Skoberne would also like to see as many as 12 transit officers hired to maintain safety on buses and in bus malls, which he believes would increase ridership.
“I’ve talked to lots of young people and lots of older people that don’t even want to take the bus,” he said. “It’s unsafe at all these bus malls right across the city here.”
“If we had that, I guarantee we’d have more people taking the bus. If they’re on the bus all the time, riding it, you’re going to have a better system well run.”
McDonald says the findings of a safety study done by the city don’t support security guards in the downtown bus mall, as they get better results relying on Saskatoon police.
He says drivers are put through training to deal with situations they face on the bus when they start with Saskatoon Transit and update training every three years.
“The best way we’ve found for that to be dealt with is to try and get a verbal de-escalation, and to not set any of those people that are not having a good day, off, by dealing with them in an improper way.”
On April 13, a fight broke out between two groups of people on a bus, resulting in a man being stabbed in the chest, and two people being sent to hospital. The driver of the bus was not harmed, but Skoberne says it’s situations like these that make driver protection important.
“The men and women that drive these buses need to be looked after, and I want them protected correctly,” he said.
“I want this gate to be there, whether they want it open or closed is their discretion what they need to do, but it should be there.”
