Attacks on MTA Workers on Rise

Safety at Work

Bronx, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – Police in New York are looking for a number of assailants who’ve attacked transit workers over the last month.

From pipe-wielding assailants to women with spray bottles, transit workers behind the wheel and on the platforms are subject to attacks and threats.

On May 29, in Brooklyn, a man attacked a 68-year-old MTA cleaner at the Bergen St. station in Boerum Hill after the transit employee confronted him, police said. The man allegedly was swinging a pipe around and smashed a station call box with it. When the cleaner confronted him, the suspect asked why he was being followed, then swung the pipe at him twice, police said.

The cleaner grabbed the suspect which sparked a brawl. Both men fell to the platform before the suspect got up and fled. The MTA cleaner was rushed to a nearby hospital by EMS, where he was treated for pains throughout his body and then released.

On May 23, an MTA subway conductor was punched in the face. Officials said the conductor had stuck his head out of his cabin window after his train had rolled into Grand Central-42nd St. station. The assailant punched the conductor with no words or communication with the conductor. After the attack, the assailant fled the scene.

The conductor was rushed to a hospital where he was treated and released.

Police this week also said they are looking for a woman who they suspect assaulted a female MTA bus driver in the Bronx. According to police, the woman approached the 33-year-old bus driver and sprayed her in the face on May 19 inside a bus in Norwood. It was the fourth reported attack on on-duty New York City transit workers in May.

Police said it was unclear what the substance the woman sprayed the bus driver with, but EMS transported the bus driver to a nearby hospital where she was checked out and treated.

The attack comes on the heels of another attack on a bus driver on May 13. In that incident, an outraged man hit a 71-year-old driver in the head with a wrench after an argument. The victim was driving his bus in Red Hook – and arguing with an unruly passenger – when the suspect boarded the bus.

Police said the suspect was called onto the bus by a female passenger who was arguing with the bus driver. The suspect and the bus driver immediately got into an argument that escalated. The suspect pulled out a wrench and hit the MTA employee on the forehead.

The driver was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was treated for a minor injury, cops said. The suspect took off after the attack with the woman from the bus, police said.

On May 19, an MTA bus operator was attacked by a woman in Brooklyn.

Police said they are searching for the woman who attacked a 55-year-old MTA bus driver with her purse. The suspect and the bus driver were in a verbal dispute when the suspect got upset enough to strike the victim with her purse multiple times. The suspect then fled on foot.

The bus driver was treated on the scene by EMS for minor injuries.

MTA officials have spoken out against the attacks against the agency’s employees.

In April, two MTA employees were attacked by a man wielding a fold-up scooter.

According to the New York Police Department, the suspect was sleeping on the No. 5 train when two employees tried to wake him up. When the man woke up, he started swinging the scooter at both of them.

One of the employees was hit in the face, and the other was hit in the hand, police said.

“It is unacceptable for someone to not only disrespect a transit worker but to do it so violently that they injure two members of a train crew simply trying to remove subway cars from service at the end of a line. When this lunatic is caught, and the NYPD – using video from that train – will find him, there needs to be maximum, real consequences," New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said in a statement at the time.

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