DRUG dealers are using children firing stones and missiles with sling shots to keep buses and their CCTV cameras out of areas where dealing is going on.
That’s what many fearful bus drivers believe, according to sources within the local bus service, who say that not only are buses being attacked but sellers and addicts are using the top deck to peddle drugs.
“Drivers are going to work worried that they will be injured or the bus window will be hit by a missile and they will lose control and swerve, injuring people or worse,” a source, who did not wish to be named, told the Limerick Post.
“These are gangs of young teenagers involved in this and it’s happening in just one area of the city. Sometimes these attacks are very concentrated at a particular time and the drivers believe the young lads are told to keep the buses from coming into a particular area because the dealers don’t want the cameras on the buses to record them.”
The attacks are mainly concentrated in O’Malley Park area of the city, according to the source. It’s also common, the source said, for young men to refuse to pay fares and demand that a driver let them out at an unauthorised stopping point, kicking doors and causing damage if they refuse to do so or opening the emergency doors and jumping out.
When a female driver was shot in the face with a pellet gun on the route some months ago, buses were withdrawn and only restored after it was agreed that a security van would follow buses on the evening route.
“There’s two security men in that van, but there’s nothing they can do. If a driver is attacked, they can’t see what’s going on. They don’t know what’s actually happening on the bus and even if they did, they can’t do anything about it. They have no powers of arrest,” the source told this newspaper.
“What the drivers want is to stop their service after 6.30pm. They’ll tell you there’s no one using the service after that time except dealers. Local people would accept that, rather than lose their bus service altogether, and that’s what will happen, because someone will be seriously hurt”.
Despite this, Bus Éireann has insisted that there are no current plans to curtail services on the route serving O’Malley Park.
National Bus and Rail Union representative Jim Boylan told the Limerick Post he can neither confirm nor deny reports that the attacks are being orchestrated by dealers to cover their criminal activities.
“We can’t prove it, but we have heard that it is the case,” Mr Boylan said. “These are kids – they’re aged between about seven and 13 or 14 – they’re out to cause disruption and they cause mayhem. Drivers feel intimidated going up there.”
Mr Boylan said there have been a number of incidents in which buses have been damaged and windows broken.
“The service is withdrawn then until the following day and then it’s just reset – it happens all over again,” he explained.
When buses were last withdrawn after the pellet gun attack on the female driver, unions said members would only go back on the route if certain measures were instituted, including the security van following the evening service and a promise of a greater Garda presence.
“The problem with the security detail van is, it can only follow one bus at a time. Drivers don’t want to go up there. They are in fear. They don’t know what they are facing every day,” Mr Boylan claimed.
“There are numerous incidents of intimidation, but buses are only pulled if there is a physical assault. We want to protect our members but, as a union, there’s only so much we can do.”
A spokesman for Bus Eireann told the Limerick Post that “the safety of our passengers and staff is of paramount importance, and any incidents reported are taken very seriously and are fully investigated.”
“Customers or members of the public can report any incidents to Gardaí, to the driver, or to our customer care team on 0818 294 015.”
The spokesman further added that “Bus Éireann would like to confirm that there is no plan to curtail services on Route 303. Bus Éireann continues to liaise with the Gardaí, the Council, and local community groups to address any issues that may arise in relation to services in the O’Malley park area of Limerick.”
“In the rare event that there is a need to curtail services due to an incident then we make that regrettable but necessary decision to curtail services for a defined period.
“There are procedures in place for our drivers to deal with anti-social or obstructive behaviour on board our vehicles, which all drivers are trained in”.
