TEEN TAKES SHIRT OFF AND TRIES TO FLEE
Teen goes wild when driver tells him to move to back
He punches driver in eye
Driver grabs his shirt
By Celine Lim
January 04, 2008
IT was a simple request to move towards the back of the bus.
Despite his injury, Mr Edward held the youth's arm to prevent him from getting away. Pictures: SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS
But that was all it took to anger a teenager, who ended up punching a SMRT bus captain in the face.
This incident on New Year's Day is the most recent of three assaults on bus captains in the past week.
The drama that started on board bus service 961 played out before the eyes of some residents of a Bukit Timah condominium on Tuesday.
A ninth-storey resident, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Ong, 39, said her dinner preparations were disrupted at 7.40pm by loud shouting.
She looked out of her window and saw more than 20 passengers alighting from a bus that had stopped, in the process of pulling out of the bus bay.
The housewife said: 'There was a commotion at the bus stop. Five or six foreign workers had formed a ring around a boy to stop him from leaving.'
She said the workers left when the bus captain alighted from his vehicle.
Thinking the drama was over, Mrs Ong returned to her dinner. But that was when the confrontation escalated into blows.
An SMRT spokesman said the bus captain was 'injured in the eye' from punches thrown by the youth.
A police spokesman said the victim, a man in his early 30s, was later sent to the National University Hospital (NUH) with facial injuries.
The bus captain, who wanted to be known only as Mr Edward, told Shin Min Daily News that he had held the youth's arm to prevent him from leaving.
Quick as lightning, the teen swung his fist at the driver three times and hit him before breaking free from the latter's grasp.
'After the teen shook me off, I managed to grab his T-shirt, but he slipped it off and tried to leave,' Mr Edward said.
The problem began when the youth and a female friend stood too close to the rear door, preventing it from closing.
When the captain asked them to move towards the rear, the boy got angry.
VERBAL ABUSE
Mr Edward said: 'He started shouting vulgarities at me. He then walked up and asked if I was not happy with him.
'I asked him to calm down or I'd call the police to handle the matter.'
When the youth continued his verbal abuse, the driver called the police on his handphone.
The teen then alighted from the bus, but was prevented from leaving by the foreign workers.
Mrs Ong said she heard shouting again a few minutes after the workers had walked away.
'The bus captain had quite a big build and was taller than the teen, who looked about 18 or 19 years old. But the teen was very aggressive. He acted like a hooligan.'
She said when the shirtless teen walked away from the bus stop, the captain followed him and pushed his head.
'It was quite dangerous as they were pushing each other on the left lane of the road.'
The teen then hailed a taxi but the cabby refused to drive off after Mr Edward related what had happened.
The bus captain and teen then walked back to the bus stop.
After the police and paramedics arrived soon after, Mrs Ong saw the youth being taken away in a police car.
The police said investigations are ongoing.
Two SBS Transit bus captains were also assaulted in the past week.
Ms Tammy Tan, director of corporate communications, SBS Transit, said the assailants in both cases appeared to be drunk.
She said a passenger boarded SBS Transit service 240 at Boon Lay Way 'reeking of alcohol' last Friday at 7.35pm.
The man ignored bus captain Woo Chee Wha's requests to pay up at first, but did so eventually.
However, a few bus stops later, the man alighted from the rear door.
He then got on the bus again from the front entrance and, without any warning, punched Mr Woo.
Three other passengers immediately went to the captain's aid and stopped the man from fleeing.
The police arrived soon after, and an ambulance took Mr Woo to the NUH where he was given outpatient treatment for a 'swollen, bruised eye'. He is on six days' medical leave.
Ms Tan said: 'We know that there are many good Samaritans out there who have tried to stop such abuse. We thank them for their help.
'We continue to seek the assistance of all commuters to report such abuses to the police should they witness any.'
She said assaults on bus captains have nearly doubled from 14 cases in 2006 to 26 cases in 2007.
Bus captains have been 'slapped, punched and even kicked', she noted.
'Such brutish behaviour is inexcusable... since it is causing hurt to people who are just doing their job.'
In an incident last Saturday at 4.40pm, a young man was 'creating a racket' on board SBS Transit service 58, said Ms Tan.
Bus captain Tommy Yong asked the operations control centre for help as the passenger 'appeared drunk'.
But before the traffic inspector could arrive, the passenger had punched Mr Yong's nose, which started to bleed profusely.
By then, all the passengers had alighted.
A call was made to the police. An ambulance took the bus captain to Changi General Hospital.
He suffered a fractured nose and requires specialist medical follow-up treatment.
Ms Tan said SBS Transit will not hesitate to 'take action against... assailants where appropriate'.
She said: 'We... are dismayed at what some commuters have done to our bus captains, particularly during the festive season...
'The only saving grace is that the number of cases dropped in the second half of 2007 after we launched the ‘Stop Bus Captain Assaults' campaign in June.'
The assault cases decreased from 18 in the first six months to eight in the second half of the year.