Lucky escape for OAP on Dublin Bus
By Aura McMenamin
A Ballymount woman had a lucky escape when a missile was thrown through a window on the 56a bus recently, one of 12 incidents including, a bus driver being assaulted, on buses serving Tallaght.
Bernadette Byrne was travelling home from the Square when she heard ‘what sounded like a bullet’. The driver pulled the bus over to discover that a spanner had been thrown through a window, and Bernadette saw a youth cycling away from the incident.
She said: “The bus was driving toward St Mark’s School at around 3pm when I heard a loud bang and saw someone cycling away.”
Bernadette (70) said the loud noise caused her to feel sick afterwards. She said: “I felt wobbly when I stood up. My stomach felt wobbly and I got sick when I got home.”
Although only one other passenger was on the bus at the time, Bernadette said the young woman was sitting near the window where the spanner was thrown. “She could have been hurt.”
The pensioner said she ‘couldn’t understand why someone would throw something like that’. She said: “This bus is precious to me. I need it in Ballymount, as the Luas is more than twenty minutes away from my house.”
A spokesperson for Dublin Bus said: “I can confirm that an incident occurred on Route 56a, last Tuesday August 29 at approximately 15.00. The bus was withdrawn from service to facilitate repairs due to anti-social behaviour.”
In another incident, a Dublin Bus driver was assaulted by a passenger on the 27 as he stopped on Brookfield Road, adding to the dozen incidents that occurred on a number of routes in Tallaght last month.
A SIPTU press spokesperson said that the driver was assaulted on a Sunday morning by an intoxicated passenger who was disembarking the bus.
The incident was discussed at the last Dublin Bus/Luas Community Forum, attended by community gardai, local councillors, union reps and Dublin Bus and Transdev management.
According to Dublin Bus Management, there have been 180 incidences of anti-social behaviour on buses, with ‘67-68 of these taking place in Tallaght’, accounting for over a third of incidents.
SIPTU Dublin Bus worker representative for Ringsend Depot, Stephen Hannan, said there was an increase of anti-social behaviour.
Mr Hannan said: “SIPTU Dublin Bus worker representatives in Ringsend and Clontarf depots believe that unless the problem is addressed we may have no option but to withdraw some bus services from the areas in question.
“We do understand that the withdrawal of any bus service from any area would be a huge inconvenience to the travelling public, but we have a responsibility for both drivers and passengers’ safety.
“We must keep in mind that if the buses are kept in a volatile area and someone was seriously injured, we could be questioned as to why the buses had not been withdrawn to protect the drivers and passengers.”
A Garda spokesperson confirmed the incident: “Gardai are investigating an assault incident in Jobstown on the 20th August 2017 at approximately 9am. A man in his 40s received minor injuries. No arrest has been made, the investigation is ongoing.”
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