Two Auckland bus drivers have been assaulted in the last week.
And yesterday two teenage girls faced serious charges following two aggravated robberies on buses in the past week.
Police have today charged a man after a suspected road rage incident near Onehunga Mall at about 2.20pm yesterday afternoon.
Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend, from Auckland City’s Crime Squad, says the offender allegedly threw a wrench at the bus driver.
“The wrench went through an open bus window and hit the driver in the head, resulting in an injury above his eye,” Friend says.
The victim was transported to hospital and is now recovering at home. Friend says he’s aware of the effect these incidents have on the community and support is being provided to the victim.
The team have been making a number of enquiries to identify and locate the person responsible and this morning they arrested a man at a Randwick Park home.
“I want to reassure the public that there is no place for this type of violence in our community,” he says.
“No one deserves to come to work and be subjected to this type of behaviour.”
The 30-year old man will appear in Auckland District Court in the coming days, and will be charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, reckless driving and driving while suspended.
Another man has been charged for an unprovoked assault that occurred in the Kingsland area last Friday, October 4.
Auckland City West Police have been investigating the assault and Area Commander Inspector Alisse Robertson says the bus had stopped on New North Road at the time.
“The offender allegedly struck the driver, before running away from the bus,” she says.
Overnight, Police located a 25-year-old Henderson man and arrested him.
He has been charged with assault and will appear in the Auckland District Court today.
“I know when these events occur it impacts the staff and commuters who use these services,” Robertson says.
“More than 13,500 bus services alone operate across our city every day, most without incident.”
AT public transport service operations manager Duncan McGrory agrees that with 13,500 bus trips each weekday he can say the majority of passengers are great.
McGrory says AT is taking action across the board to ensure the safety of passengers and drivers but, unfortunately, ”there is no single quick fix”.
AT is working with community groups, NZ Police and other agencies. It is employing and deploying more transport officers and all its buses have CCTV.
It is also installing safety screens on buses to protect drivers.
“Our project team is moving as quickly as possible, working closely with our operators to retrofit the existing fleet of 1300 buses with safety screens. The target is to fit 80% of the fleet within the next two years,” McGrory says.
He said all the new buses come with safety screens installed .
He says the challenge with retrofitting is there are several different makes of buses and each screen needs to be designed, trialled, manufactured, and installed.
In the past month five screens have been installed with another 10 to come shortly, with over 60 by early next year. Aa further 300 are scheduled to be installed in the first half of 2025.
