Beer cans, eggs and a burning service map hurled at TTC drivers

TTC drivers were assaulted more than 50 times over the first four months of 2023, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all violent incidents across the bus network during that same time period.

New documents obtained by CP24 through a freedom of information request provide a detailed accounting of all of the reported incidents of criminality on TTC buses from January through the end of April.

During that time period there were 91 incidents classified as an assault call and 53 of those involved TTC employees. There were also another 91 criminal complaints that were classified as threats, all but two of which were directed at TTC employees.

Some of the incidents previously made headlines – including multiple instances in which TTC workers were shot at with a BB gun – but many of them are coming to light publicly for the first time.

“That is my concern regarding all the media exposure with all the incidents of violence against transit workers or transit riders, that it seems to not be catching the front page or the headlines as it was earlier on and it is being normalized,” ATU Local 113 President Marvin Alfred, who union represents 12,000 frontline TTC workers, told CP24.com last week after being informed about many of the previously unreported occurrences. “The transit system in general should be a sanctuary away from all of this but you have transit workers who are simply trying to do their jobs safely and they are at the mercy and the whims of somebody’s mood and their level of violence. It is disturbing.”

DRIVERS PELTED WITH BEER CANS, FOOD AND TRANSFER BOOKLETS

The overall number of incidents against TTC employees have declined by about three per cent so far in 2023, from 8.69 per 100 employees in January to 8.39 per 100 employees in May.

There has also been a decline in operator assaults, more specifically.

Data provided by the TTC shows that there were 63 operator assaults across the transit system during the first quarter of 2023, including 51 on buses.

That number is down 21 per cent when compared to the first quarter of 2022.

TTC statistics also show that the number of assault incidents per 100 operators was at four-year low in the fist quarter, coming in at 0.96 compared to a peak of 1.35 in 2021.

But the documents obtained by CP24 do lay bare the extent of violence that TTC operators continue to face on the job.

Spitting appears to be the most common attack, mentioned in at least 17 of the incidents outlined in the documents.

But drivers were also pelted with everything from beers cans to takeout containers, transfer booklets, rocks, eggs and in at least one case a TTC service map that had been lit on fire, the documents show.

Verbal abuse also remains a chief concern.

The documents show that 54 explicit death threats were made against TTC bus drivers between January and the end of April.

For this purpose, CP24.com is also considering any threat in which a suspect threatens to shoot or stab an operator as a death threat.

In one incident on January 6 a driver was operating a bus along Dufferin Avenue when a suspect began jabbing at the fare box with a knife. The suspect then threatened to stab the driver and began banging on the plastic barrier separating the two with the knife.

In another incident on Jan. 27, a driver was parked at Eglinton West Station when a suspect threatened to “get someone” to sexually assault them without provocation. That suspect also threatened to kill the operator, the documents show.

In a statement provided to CP24.com, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said that any assault or abuse of transit workers is “reprehensible.”

Green, however, said that the TTC takes the safety of its employees seriously and has a number of programs in place to support them, should they fall victim to violence while on the job.

“That’s why we have long worked with employees through Joint Health and Safety Committees to ensure the voices, concerns, thoughts and suggestions of frontline workers are heard through direct feedback to managers. That initiative has resulted in numerous improvements such as the installation of barriers for bus operators – and recently an industry-leading re-design of them based on additional feedback,” he said. “We will continue to protect and work with our frontline staff to ensure these incidents are mitigated.”

NEARLY HALF OF ASSAULTS ARE UNPROVOKED

The statistics provided to CP24 by the TTC showed that 41 per cent of bus operator assaults in the first quarter were “unprovoked,” up from 35 per cent during the first few months of 2022.

In one such incident detailed in the documents, an operator was returning from the employee washroom near the bus bay at St. Clair Station when a suspect attacked them with a screwdriver, causing them to sustain a cut to their left leg that had to be treated in hospital.

In another, an off duty relief operator was sexually assaulted on a bus near Eglinton and Victoria Park avenues by a suspect who said “Do you think I care about what (expletive) uniform you are wearing?”

“It's not just operators that are suffering at the hands of these incidents of violence. You have transit workers in general. You have somebody in uniform going in to get a coffee or something like that and they are so concerned (for their safety) that they are covering up the TTC logo,” Alfred told CP24.com. “It's something that's disturbing in our society. Transit workers have always been perceived as a helpful asset in the City of Toronto when people are living their lives day-to-day and for whatever reason that relationship has deteriorated.”

SERVICE FRUSTRATIONS LED TO SOME INCIDENTS

The new details about operator assaults come in the wake of a CP24 investigation which found that customers have a number of concerns about safety on the transit system, including open drug use.

Many of the incidents detailed in the documents do begin over more benign matters, such as a fare dispute.

But at least a few dozen involved customers who took out their apparent frustration with TTC service on its frontline employees.

In one incident, two suspects accosted a driver near Finch Avenue and Jane Street about why they had skipped a stop. The driver explained that it was not safe to do so due to construction, at which point the suspects exited the vehicle. But as they did one of them remarked “that’s why you bus drivers get stabbed,” and the other picked up a rock and threw it at the operator.

In another, s suspect approached a supervisor near Queen Street and University Avenue to complain about the routing of buses and grew irate. He then threatened to kill the worker before shoving him.

Speaking with CP24.com, Alfred said that service cuts at the TTC have exacerbated the violence problem as many riders take their frustrations out on frontline employees.

He believes that “of people had a safer, more reliable, trusted system that they can depend on there would be less issues in the system with people taking out their frustrations (on workers).”

“We have a system where by design the TTC is having people wait longer periods of time for the service they have always had, we are having more crowding in vehicles by design and that can only lead to greater customer frustration. Members of the public, teenagers, people going to work, school are taking the frustrations out on transit workers and that is not where their frustrations should be directed,” he said.

BY THE NUMBERS

Sexual assaults – 1

Assaults - 53

Spitting incidents– 17

Incidents involving racial abuse – 14

Death threats - 54