Chris Day update

 

Today I was assaulted at work. If you don’t know, I have been driving city bus in Portland Oregon (TriMet) for almost 15 years now. This will make for the third assault I have received. The last two took place in 2016. Here is the radio communications that took place after the assault:

http://www.rosecitytransit.org/radio/2022/2/1/183907-105.mp3

http://www.rosecitytransit.org/radio/2022/2/1/184144-1777.mp3

http://www.rosecitytransit.org/radio/2022/2/1/184327-105.mp3

Pictures are also being attached.

As an operator we are out there alone and anything that we do can easily trigger anyone to do some very mean things. We try to do our job yet it feels like that the public has taken on the approach of bulling and intimidation so that they can do as they please. If an operator comments about fare or mask requirements they are at risk of harm. If an operator doesn’t open then door when ever a person wishes it to be open that operator is at risk of harm. If an operator denies a gas can or car battery from being boarded on the bus that operator is at risk of being harmed. Anything we do, we are at risk of being harmed.

Here is what happened:

 I was stopped at a red light. My stop is on the other side of the intersection. A customer yells from the back “can I get off here” I respond back “sorry, I only service stops.” The light was about to turn green anyways. The person yells back “other drivers do it” and I then repeated myself. Just as the light was turning green the person gets made and kicks the back door and gets their foot stuck in between the doors. I quickly pull in to the stop and release the back door so the person can get out. The person then quickly ran to the front of the bus, jump back on and started yelling at me saying how it is my fault their foot got stuck in the door. Then the person kicked at the barrier (I had the barrier closed fully) and attempted to reach around and hit me with their fist. I was able to avoid getting hit. I had sent a message to dispatch while the person was kicking at the barrier and as I piked up the handset to talk with dispatch the person started spraying me with mace.

The handle that opens my barrier has been difficult to open all day and so I was not able to push the barrier and the person away from me and was stuck in this area getting sprayed with mace.

The person then ran away and the burning was kicking in. Lucky enough an operator was riding my bus as a passenger and was able to help me with dispatch. Eventually medical and road sup arrived and then a little later police arrived. I am so mad and I am waiting to hear management tell me how I should have opened the door when the passenger asked. I have adopted the practice of only servicing stops for many reasons. The key reason is because we are a fixed run service and it assures that I treat everyone equally. I have had times that people have requested to be let off at a location that was clearly not a safe location to open doors. I have had times that I let a person off at a safe location and then another person wants off but the location the requested was not safe. When I said to the person that it was not safe, I was then accused of being racial. To avoid any of that I just simply stick to the stops. Now I get assaulted for sticking to stops. This world sucks.

UPDATE FROM CHRIS

I received a phone call from the officer that is handling my attack. He informs me that TriMet claims that the system malfunctioned and there is no video or audio of the incident. This leaves the DA and Officer with no evidence and nothing to build a case from. This means that no action will be taken upon this person even if the person is found. From my understanding this is happening a lot and officers are having to drop cases because of this. I find it very interesting that management has very little issue with the system when they want to take actions against an operator yet when an operator is in need of the video or audio something always happens to it. Our busses are new (or not that old) and our systems should not be having such issues. This has me very upset and I hope we can make a big stink about this.