MTA Calls Bus Driver Attack In The Village 'Heartbreaking'

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The interim president of the New York City Transit Authority released a strong statement Tuesday about three "appalling" attacks against MTA employees in the last 24 hours, including a bus driver in the East Village.

On Monday night, a bus driver in an out-of-service bus at Fourth Avenue and E. 8th Street was randomly attacked, according to the MTA. A man approached the bus and held the doors open, while a woman ran onto the bus and punched the driver multiple times in the face.

The bus driver got taken to the NY Presbyterian Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries to the face, neck, and back, said the MTA.

"Attacking a public servant who is working hard to keep New York moving during this time of uncertainty is heartbreaking, outrageous, and frankly, unfathomable," New York City Transit Authority interim President Sarah Feinberg said in a news release. "Over the past 24 hours, three New York City Transit employees — workers who were simply doing their jobs, serving the public — were attacked, assaulted, threatened, and in one horrifying instance, pushed onto subway tracks."

Other than the East Village attack, a platform conductor got pushed onto the tracks Tuesday on the Manhattan-bound A/C platform at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station, and a bus driver was verbally assaulted Tuesday by a man in Queens who also shattered the vehicle's window.