After a young female bus driver was attacked and injured on Wednesday by a woman passenger, unions of the Flemish public transport company De Lijn are planning an awareness-raising action next Thursday, aiming at the thousands of Pukkelpop festivalgoers that are expected.

The action was originally scheduled for September but has been brought forward following the recent attacks on De Lijn drivers in Peer and Hasselt. An awareness campaign and petition will be launched at Hasselt station among travelers.

‘Stop the Aggression’ campaign

“The petition aims to point out to the authorities that something must finally be done about these almost daily cases of aggression,” secretary of BTB-ABVV Limburg Christel Evers informs. “It’s not just about physical but also verbal aggression. We want action to be finally taken, such as locking driver cabins.”

The ‘Stop the Aggression’ campaign will be launched across Flanders at the start of the new school year in September. Due to the new violence cases in Peer and Hasselt, that start-up in Limburg, which involves handing out armbands to bus drivers and launching a petition campaign for zero tolerance, has been brought forward by two weeks.

Normalization

In Hasselt on Wednesday evening, a 25-year-old female bus driver was attacked by an angry traveler. The driver was badly impressed afterward and suffered some bruises. The suspect, a woman, has since been arrested.

In Peer, there was also an aggression case a few hours earlier, in which the windscreen of a bus was damaged. Work was, therefore, suspended in four depots on Thursday.

The unions also want work to be done on the action points agreed as the roundtable following the severe aggression on a driver at Genk station, such as a locked driver’s cabin and additional inspectors.

“Above all, it must be done quickly,” says Christel Evers. “Aggression has increased in the last few years. And it’s not just physical aggression but also verbal aggression. Our drivers already find it normal to be scolded. It is also a social problem.” Not only bus drivers but also train intendants and emergency workers face this more often. “This normalization of it is not ok.”

Minister responds

In a reaction, Flemish Minister of Mobility and Public Works Lydia Peeters (Open Vld) already let it be known that from September, the buses owned by De Lijn will be accelerated to be equipped with locked steering positions.

“That is already the first step in a series of measures we are taking. We are also recruiting extra line inspectors and have knocked off ten action points together with federal ministers Van Quickenborne and Verlinden. It is an integral approach from the different levels, with concrete actions.”

In April, De Lijn introduced the first bus ban ever for a 19-year-old roughneck.