RTBU urges Brisbane City Council to do more to protect drivers against abuse
It has been revealed that Brisbane bus drivers are huge targets of abuse with a driver ambushed by a man wielding a tomahawk just weeks ago. As members are likely aware, abuse against bus drivers is not new unfortunately and neither is the government’s lack of response. As was proved in the case of the late Mr Alisher, buses are desperately in need of additional security measures to protect both drivers and passengers. The lack of protection costs lives.
Instead of immediately improving security with no questions asked, Brisbane City Council has insisted that it can’t do more than the bare minimum and come out with more bureaucratic nonsense, saying that bus driver protection is a state responsibility.
Though they’ve decided to run an ad campaign and make minor additions to buses for safety, they still aren’t listening to the drivers that face dangerous situations every day. Drivers have been demanding full screens instead of the useless half coverage safety screens the Council has provided. A half screen is not much use if someone gets on the bus with a literal ax to grind.
“The attempts of the Council to brush this off and try to fix things are laughable. Brisbane bus drivers are better off taking their own safety screen to work. If they really had safety as their number one priority, maybe we would actually see action that’s not completely incompetent,” said RTBU Tram and Bus Secretary, David Babineau.
“At this stage the Council just appears to be incapable of doing what needs to be done without being forced into honouring their duty of care to drivers. We’re 100% behind our comrades in Brisbane as they continue to fight and try to point these government bureaucrats in the right direction and keep them focused on effective driver safety.”