bus drivers facing attacks

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An exasperated motorist breaks the windows with his bare hand, then enters the bus and hits the driver several times. Identical scene, this time filmed by panicking passengers. The driver was also badly beaten. These violent attacks against bus drivers have been increasing throughout France in recent years.. On the RATP network, attacks have doubled in just three years.

We followed a driver in the Ile-de-France region. In direct contact with users, he describes a daily life peppered with incidents. “Because of being insulted, we don’t really have the morale to come to work. We think twice”he confides. Last year, he was also the victim of an attack by a customer: “There was a lady moving the gate so she could hit me. At that moment, I made a discreet call and the BAC arrived in less than five minutes”.

Few victims want to testify in front of our camera. Huguette Vaudelet accepted. She has worked in the Saint-Malo area (Ile-et-Vilaine) for 36 years. With emotion, she said she had a pit in her stomach when she started work: “I was physically attacked. I was verbally attacked. I was spat on. When I was shot, five years ago, it was at the end of my shift. Two impacts, two bullets in my front doors. I have a child at home. I want to come home alive. It hurts me because I love buses. I love my job. I don’t agree that people are attacked who work.”.

In some cities, attacks are a daily occurrence. In Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), we obtained an internal report. In the month of October alone, there was an average of more than one attack per day: 34 in total, verbal and physical. Here are some of the incident reports: “Signal that an individual is showing his knife”, “The group stones their bus and tries to climb on the vehicle”, “Report having received a firecracker on the bus thrown by two young people who were on the platform”.

Some transport companies have therefore invested in the protection of their agents. A company manages around forty lines in Île-de-France. Some of the vehicles are now adapted: “You have the anti-aggression window which allows the driver to have a protective window and to be better protected”. A discreet call button is also hidden in the cockpit. If the driver triggers it, he is directly put in touch with his Security PC agents. “We speak of discreet listening when our driver triggers a discreet alarm, which allows our driver not to alert the person who would potentially be attacking and allows his operators to analyze the situation, to know precisely what is happening”explains Steeven Fresac, Transdev security and anti-fraud director.

Last April, a law was passed to allow drivers to wear pedestrian cameras and microphones to collect evidence in the event of an assault.