NYC TWU 100 Subway Train Operator Talks After Being Violently Attacked On The Job

NYC TWU 100 Subway Train Operator Talks After Being Violently Attacked On The Job
J Train Assault Was One Of 3 This Past Saturday Night Alone
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/08/25/subway-train-operator-attack/
August 25, 2015 5:04 PM

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Subway train operators are being attacked on the job, in an alarming trend that has left transit employees worried about their safety.
As CBS2’s Dick Brennan reported, one operator said he was violently assaulted while doing his job this past weekend.
“I was dazed for a second, and I’m like, ‘Wow, he just hit me!’” said train operator Vickram Soenda.
Soenda never saw it coming. On Saturday night in the Essex Street station on the Lower East Side, a passenger pushed in his cab door on his J Train, and then unloaded on him.
“He opened the door and just punched me in the face. He said, ‘What are you going to do? What are you going to do?’ and just punched me,” Soenda said. “And as he punched me, three passengers tried to assist me, and he punched them also.”
The attack on Soenda was one of three separate incidents Saturday night.
On a southbound C Train at Euclid Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, another operator was struck in the arm by a beer can that was thrown by a passenger.
And in the Court Square G Train station in Long Island City, Queens, someone spat in the face of a train operator.
Soenda said when his attacker was originally pushing on his cab door, he was afraid to push back because he thought then he would be blamed for whatever happened.
“If I had to fight this guy off, he could sue the MTA. I could lose my job,” Soenda said, “and you know, it goes on and on and on.”
The Transport Workers Union said the subways have become a home for the mentally ill and street criminals, and employees need better protection.
Soenda couldn’t agree more, and he wants something done.
“And it’s like, nobody is doing anything about it,” he said. “And you know, thank God he didn’t have a knife or anything. He could have stabbed me, easily.”
Soenda said his jaw was badly bruised, but not broken, and he has a lot of neck pain. But he wants to go back to work.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it is working to catch the suspects in all three cases.