Transit officials are considering installing safety barriers around bus drivers in B.C.'s Lower Mainland following a violent attack this weekend in Burnaby.
"We're very concerned," Derek Zabel of Coast Mountain Bus Company told CTV.
It's only a matter of time before someone gets killed. These assaults have to stop."
On Saturday, a bus driver was punched in the head several times while trying to eject a drunken passenger. He also tried to break the windows of the bus before running away.
Witnesses say the man was exposing himself and urinating on the bus.
Coast Mountain has started placing security cameras on buses, and is now thinking about installing plastic shields to protect drivers.
"We could probably reduce assaults by 70 per cent with the shields," Zabel said.
So far this year, 113 of the company's drivers have been attacked. Eleven of those cases have involved weapons. Another 55 were spat on.
Bus drivers say abuse from passengers is a daily occurrence.
"Sometimes it's verbal. Sometimes a little more than that," one said.
But not all drivers agree they need to be encased in plastic.
"I don't like it," the driver said. "Then I'm trapped too."
"We need the camera, but for the shield it's not needed," another said. "We should have more security on the buses."
The man who assaulted the bus driver in Burnaby this weekend still hasn't been caught.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington
