SEPTA tests bullet-resistant glass enclosures to protect bus drivers
SEPTA Tests Bulletproof Glass Enclosures to Protect Bus Drivers
Source: William Thomas Cain / Getty
SEPTA is taking action to combat the uptick in violence on public transportation happening over recent years.
Bus drivers secured improved safety measures, including bulletproof glass enclosures for their vehicles, when they signed a new contract last year and avoided a strike.
RELATED: SEPTA Strike Negotiation Continues [FULL STORY]
“This safety measure is necessary because of the outrageous and grotesque level of violence against front-line transit workers,” Transport Workers Union International President John Samuelsen said in a statement. “We need to completely encapsulate Bus Operators to protect them from all sorts of attacks and threats, including gunfire. It’s unacceptable that Bus Operators leaving home for work worry they might wind up in the emergency room, or worse.”
Tony Ritchie, Custom Glass Solutions’ business development manager, says it’ll cost about $15,000 to $18,000 to board an entire bus with the enclosure.
“The entire barrier — the glass, the door — nobody’s getting through this,” Ritchie said. “We decided to come up with a barrier that provided the ultimate protection, so transit authorities wouldn’t need to keep revisiting this problem over and over again. This absolutely is going to save tons of lives.”
Watch Transport Workers Union’s first look at the SEPTA proposed bulletproof glass shields below!
Samuelsen believes attacks on bus drivers is “the dirty secret of public transit in America”, revealing that there are more than 20 assaults a week against operators in New York City and Philadelphia
“Anybody who thinks (these types of enclosures) are not necessary should get behind the wheel of a bus in urban America,” Samuelson said.
According to CBS News, The bulletproof glass compartments comes after the murder of Bernard Gribbin, who was driving a Route 23 bus on Germantown Avenue when he was shot multiple times by a passenger on Oct. 26, 2023, sparking concerns about safety among drivers.
Gribbin, 48, was described in an obituary as an Army veteran who was stationed in Germany and deployed to Bosnia from 1996 to 1999.
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SEPTA Tests Bulletproof Glass Enclosures to Protect Bus Drivers was originally published on ronernbphilly.staging.go.ione.nyc
