assaults on public transport workers are taken seriously<\/a> and encourage anyone who witnessed the incident, or who may have information that could assist, to contact police,\u201d Weir said.<\/p>\nAlmoukdad said he was operating a bus on Auckland Transport\u2019s Route 32 when he stopped for two women at a bus stop.<\/p>\n
The first paid their fare via card while the second boarded without paying, leading Almoukdad to question why.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018This bus is not going to move unless you either use your card or you get off the bus\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo she went back and punched me right in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almoukdad said the punch briefly knocked him out, and he was left in shock, struggling to see and bleeding from the upper lip.<\/p>\n
He plans to return to work on Monday, having taken two days of sick leave after being sent home on Wednesday, but said he will refuse to drive a bus without a protection screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not taking the risk anymore,\u201d Almoukdad said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not in the age to be punched up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having operated buses for Ritchies\u2019 AT contract over the past year, Almoukdad said there\u2019s \u201ca silent majority of us drivers\u201d who are \u201creally scared of our passengers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe seem to hide the fact that the drivers are getting a really big chunk of the violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we cover for it because we don\u2019t want to discourage drivers to come and work.<\/p>\n
![\"Almoukdad]()
Almoukdad called for tougher safety and security measures on Auckland’s bus network, citing a growing fear of law-breaking passengers. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
Almoukdad said it pains him to see passengers deliberately avoiding paying fares \u2013 he likened it to stealing.<\/p>\n
He called for an accelerated deployment of driver protection screens and the introduction of transport officers across the bus network to help mitigate threats from law-breaking passengers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t let people, as a habit, use public transport without paying and get away with it … otherwise they think it\u2019s by right.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Auckland Transport (AT) said its teams try to maintain and promote a safe environment across their services and facilities, but \u201cthe issue of community safety and antisocial behaviour extends well beyond public transport.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rare incidents we see taking place on Auckland\u2019s public transport services are a symptom of broader challenges our society is grappling with, and we can\u2019t address these issues in isolation,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make our buses, trains and ferries safer, we also have to make our homes, communities and streets safer.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Ashraf]()
Ashraf Almoukdad, 63, was allegedly assaulted by a female passenger after she refused to pay her fare on Auckland Transport’s Route 32 bus.<\/p>\n
AT\u2019s group manager for public transport operations Rachel Cara said assaults against drivers, while trending down, remain \u201cunacceptably high\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike many public-facing roles, bus driving reflects the realities of the communities our drivers serve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrivers are trained with de-escalation techniques as part of their inductions and are advised not to get into confrontational situations that can escalate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weir asked anyone with information about the alleged assault to contact police via 105 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers, referencing the file number 260429\/8818.<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almoukdad said he briefly blacked out and was bleeding after the assault. Weir said the driver received facial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,7818,51,3952,9442,30482,3595,5842,19552,17900,1872,39490,11686,9787,1364,546,3805,111,139,69,14734,2744,105,40182,312,2437,213,106276,61],"class_list":["post-408118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-allegedly","tag-auckland","tag-aucklands","tag-better","tag-bus","tag-by","tag-calling","tag-driver","tag-enforcement","tag-face","tag-fare","tag-fares","tag-female","tag-her","tag-measures","tag-network","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-passenger","tag-pay","tag-punched","tag-refusing","tag-says","tag-security","tag-sports","tag-stricter","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}