A Launceston Metro bus driver has been left “traumatised” after he was attacked with a broken glass bottle by two teenage boys.
The man in his early thirties was bashed on Friday night while operating a service from Launceston to Mowbray.
Police say the boys, aged 16 and 17, were asked to leave the bus by the driver due to their drinking and disruptive behaviour, but they refused and became violent.
The officers say the pair punched and kicked the driver and hit him in the eye with the bottle.
The driver’s mother Bronny Walsh told 7 Tasmania that her son is “concerned for the welfare of the family because he knows we’re traumatised”.
“He’s got an 18-month-old daughter who is looking at a face that is just completely bruised,” she said.
“How does he go back to work and be that smiling face that he always is when people get on the bus?”
She is advocating for mandatory security guards on night bus routes and driver security screens, saying drivers aren’t and shouldn’t be trained or equipped to deal with the level of threats and violence they encounter on the job.
Transport Minister Eric Abetz said more transit officers, first promised a year ago and rolled out in Hobart, are in the process of being trained.
“The extra screens and the transit officers is just an extra expense to the Tasmanian taxpayer courtesy of this type of anti-social behaviour,” he said.
The attack comes days after Metro drivers secured a new enterprise agreement that includes ‘critical incident leave’ to help drivers recover after serious incidents.
