Statistics provided to CTV News Ottawa show there were 34 bus driver assaults in the first nine months of 2022, and 38 assaults in 2021.
"Over the years, the numbers were pretty high until we installed barriers, shields on the buses," Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279 President Clint Crabtree told CTV News Ottawa.
In 2020, the Transit Commission approved $6 million in funding to install permanent barriers on OC Transpo buses to protect bus drivers. The installation of more than 700 barriers started in April 2021, and was finished a few months later. OC Transpo says there has been a "consistent reduction in the rate of assaults" against bus drivers since 2018, when 105 incidents were reported.
"Staff note that while there may be a correlation between ridership levels and operator assaults, isolating the operators as much as possible with barriers has resulted in positive impacts on the reduction in assault occurrences."