News: Union Offers Bus Driver Beating Reward

Vancouver Sun

Published: Friday, November 30, 2007

VANCOUVER - The union representing bus drivers is offering a $2,000 reward for any information leading to the conviction of people who swarmed and beat a Coast Mountain bus driver on Halloween night.

The unidentified driver was dragged off a bus and hit after she threw some Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters near Commercial Drive and Napier Street.

A couple of passengers on the bus intervened and stopped the attack. But the driver was physically injured and emotionally traumatized.

Her union, Canadian Auto Workers, Local 111, said the woman is back driving a bus on a different route, but it will not release her name because she is still fearful of her attackers.

The union is calling on federal MPs to pass a private member's bill that would mean stiffer sentences for people convicted of assaulting on-duty bus drivers and other transit workers.

The bill proposed by Burnaby-New Westminster NDP MP Peter Julian would allow judges to impose sentences of up to 20 years for assaults on public transportation workers.

"Our members shouldn't be driving in fear," CAW Local 111 president Steve Sutherland told reporters Friday.

"You shouldn't be afraid to go to work because you might be assaulted."

Sutherland said he expects the number of attacks on drivers in Metro Vancouver will exceed the 241 assaults that occurred in 2006.

"There's no doubt it's getting worse," said Sutherland. "We're getting more brutal assaults and we're getting them for no reason."

News: Bus Driver Assaulted

Vancouver police are looking for two teenage girls after a TransLink driver was assaulted and a trolley bus was lit on fire Wednesday night.

TransLink says this bus was torched Wednesday night following an assault on the female driver.
(CBC)

Police said at about 10:30 p.m. the female driver stopped on Commercial Drive at Napier Street in East Vancouver and offered a group of young people Halloween candy.

"She opens up the door and she asks if they want some candy, " said Const. Howard Chow, a spokesman for Vancouver police.

"They say they do. She throws it out and for some unknown reason there's a bit of an argument or some yelling at the bus driver … Two teenaged girls then grabbed the bus driver, dragged her out and start beating on her," he said.

Investigators said two teenaged girls, reported to be wearing Santa hats, repeatedly "punched her multiple times in the head."

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News: Man Loses Part of Ear in Vicious Robbery

From the Vancouver Sun

Published: Tuesday, May 29, 2007

A Vancouver man has lost part of his ear in a vicious robbery in the 2500 block of Commercial Drive.

Two men attacked the 41-year-old late Monday, dragging him into the south lane of East 11th Avenue, Vancouver police reported today in a news release.

He was punched, kicked and had part of his ear bitten off before the duo took off in a four-door silver car.

Read the full story here...