What the hell is happening out there on the RTA routes? You’ve got to be thinking along the same lines. In just the last few months, we’ve seen a spat of incidents where passengers lash out at drivers — and, of course, a driver giving it back in kind. But this week saw another violent episode on Cleveland’s public transit, which makes us wonder if this troubling list might soon trigger some kind of systemic action or reform.
According to Fox8, part-time bus driver Greg Vranekovic was steering the Number 15 bus down Union Avenue on the east side yesterday afternoon. A passengers slid on through the back exit; the driver, who’s only been on the job a few months, told the guy to pay.
As the passenger approached, he mimed like he was going to spit on Vranekovic. Once in close range, he started wailing on the driver’s face. When Fox8 caught up with the victim coming out of the hospital later that night, his nose was still bruised up from the attack.
This latest attack comes on the heals of RTA’s decision Tuesday to fire Artis Hughes, the driver who decked an attacking passenger in what’s become known as the Uppercut Seen Around the World. That attack, and the consequences, influenced Vranekovic’s situation.
“You gotta bring Brother Hughes back because this is becoming an epidemic on our drivers and it’s not fair to them to take this abuse while they’re out there doing their job,” said union representative William Nix, Sr.
Vranekovic, who is part-time and has only been on the job a few months, says he actually thought twice about defending himself, because of the Artis Hughes case.
This article appears in Nov 7-13, 2012.
First, I agree that Mr. Hughes should be rehired. The punishment he should receive at the hands of the criminal justice system should be more than adequate for RTA, and if not, a retraining class or something would serve.
Second, it is time to start discussing having transit cops on buses. When a driver is attacked, everyone on the bus is in danger, as well as everyone in a car or on foot near that bus. I know this will be expensive, but I don’t care — maybe they can hire some of the garbagemen I dearly loved who lost their jobs after these damned microchipped trash cans were installed.
This cannot be allowed to continue.
Madeline, Concerning the comment you made about the Garbage Men losing jobs… Have you noticed the City now uses 3 trucks on a route instead of 1 ? That truck #1 and truck #2 have 2 man crews and truck #3 has a 3 to 4 man crew ? That is 7 to 8 men per route compared to the 3 man crew that was always at my house by 10 a.m.. Now I am lucky if they show up by 3 or 4 p.m.. I may not have a Doctorate in math, but the way I look at this, considering this occurs on every route in the entire City, it seems to me they had to HIRE people rather than FIRE people. It seems funny to me no one in the news industry has mentioned this, but what about the GREAT PROFITS the City was to be raking in from Inaction Jackson’s grandiose scheme of recycling everything and charging us to make THEM money ? I have to wonder how much more this is costing the taxpayers in fuel, mainainence,insurance,wages , compared to what we had .
That’s horrible that a driver would have to think twice about defending himself because of how the situation was handled. Something needs to change NOW or RTA needs to issue some kind of formal policy on all of this. It’s not fair to the drivers and they shouldn’t have to work in conditions like that.
99% of the retards driving for RTA shouldn’t be allowed to drive. No regard for other drivers and just drive like the biggest morons. No sympathy whatsoever for these jagoffs.