{"id":15953,"date":"2012-08-03T11:41:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-03T15:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=15953"},"modified":"2012-08-20T08:40:30","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T12:40:30","slug":"union-alleges-hart-doesnt-protect-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=15953","title":{"rendered":"Union Alleges HART Doesn\u2019t Protect Drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>On Thursday, July 19th<\/sup>, HART Bus operator, Colin Brown<\/strong>, was assaulted as he drove the #2 bus route. A female patron entered the bus, paid her fare, and then attacked Brown<\/strong>, hitting him at least 20 times with her fist.<\/p>\n

Brown<\/strong> reportedly tried to protect his face as he pushed the immediate assistance button on the bus. Brown<\/strong> said he tried the button several times, but HART staff was not available and did not respond.<\/p>\n

Brown<\/strong> was able to finally open his seatbelt and get out of the driver\u2019s seat. He then pushed \u00a0the patron off the bus and she just sat on a bench at the bus shelter as if nothing had happened.<\/p>\n

Brown<\/strong> then called dispatch from his cell phone and informed HART he had been severely assaulted, and he needed police, a road supervisor and medical help.<\/p>\n

Brown <\/strong>was transported to the hospital by ambulance. The patron, identified as Mayi Nathali Rijo-Martinez<\/strong>, was subsequently arrested and charged with battery of a public service employee. Her bond is set at $1,000.<\/p>\n

Amalgamated Transit Union Local #1593, who represents HART drivers, mechanics, and customer service personnel, released a statement about the incident.<\/p>\n

ATU Local 1593 Chief Steward, Michaela Stuckey<\/strong>, said nobody from HART informed Brown\u2019s <\/strong>wife about the incident, or check on his condition to see how he was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Brown<\/strong> has a severe concussion, and it seems no one from the authority cares.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrown<\/strong> is not the only driver that\u2019s been attacked. We have drivers being assaulted all the time, but when it\u2019s a driver of color, little or nothing is done about it. They are hiding how they are wasting the money of taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stuckey<\/strong> said the union has filed several unfair labor practice claims on behalf of the drivers, asking HART to treat the drivers like they are human.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the incident with Brown<\/strong> is concerned, they told us he knew the woman, but even if that\u2019s true, that\u2019s no excuse for him being attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

HART Public Information Office spokesperson, Marcia Mejia<\/strong>, said the incident is under internal investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take these incidents seriously. We did test the vehicle to make sure the communication equipment was working properly, and on Thursday, it was working, so the bus was put back out on route. Safety is number one for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mejia<\/strong> said as far as they are concerned, this is not a widespread problem, and the incidents are pretty much isolated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, one is too many for us. We have safeguards for crime deterrents. It isn\u2019t an epidemic. This was the only incident where a driver was actually injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Brown<\/strong> is out on leave, and we are currently negotiating with the union on a new contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown<\/strong> said he\u2019s currently receiving Workman\u2019s Compensation, and has not set a date when he will be returning to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I was strapped into my seat at the time of the attack, I couldn\u2019t really defend myself. I received several blows to my head, and I messed up my back trying to move around in my seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy attacker didn\u2019t seem angry at first, but something set her off, and I don\u2019t know what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown<\/strong> said he started driving for HART 8 years ago, and this is the first time something like this has happened to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a driver, this is not something you see coming. You don\u2019t prepare yourself from being attacked by a patron. That is not something you\u2019re trained to deal with when you start working here, and no one ever talks about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown<\/strong> said he does feel HART could do a better job protecting the drivers by listening more to what they are trying to tell them, and be more concerned about their safety than increasing ridership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if they put certain policies in place, it would stop this kind of violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say it could have been a lot worse, because the bus was pretty full when I was attacked. The response time of a supervisor coming to my aid should have been a lot better, and it was only after I used my cell phone when one actually showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown<\/strong> said he doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s fair that he\u2019s being investigated to see if he instigated the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are rumors going around that the woman who attacked me was my ex-girlfriend.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was not my girlfriend, and I only recall seeing her riding the bus on a couple of routes I\u2019ve driven on. We\u2019ve never had a conversation, and I don\u2019t know her name or anything about her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer \u00a0 On Thursday, July 19th, HART Bus operator, Colin Brown, was assaulted as he drove the #2 bus route. A female patron entered the bus, paid her fare, and then attacked Brown, hitting him at least 20 times with her fist. Brown reportedly tried to protect his face […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}