Bus driver shocked at request to work on after bashing

Sudeep Singh credits the 7m of cloth in his turban with saving his life. Photo / Steven McNicholl

After being bashed repeatedly in the head, Auckland bus driver Sudeep Singh says he was asked if he could drive his vehicle back to its depot.

He told a radio controller at NZ Bus he was in no condition to do so, but was then asked if he could drive a van if another bus driver arrived in it to replace him on his aborted run through Otara on Friday night.

The requests came when he radioed the company to say he had been attacked by three youths who ran off with his cashbox, before a female passenger went to his aid and called police.

"I said, 'No, I'm in shock,' and the lady said, 'He's in shock - he's shivering'," he told the Herald at his East Tamaki home last night, while recovering from concussion and severe bruising to his head and an arm.

Mr Singh, 57, says he was punched in the head more than 20 times and believes it was only the 7m of cloth in his turban that saved his life.

"I always wear my turban because I am a Sikh person - it saved my life - but even then if you are getting 20 to 30 punches around the head, you can be shaken."

He said the attack, about 6.30pm at a bus stop across Otara Rd from the Manukau Institute of Technology, was unprovoked and not preceded by any demands for cash.

His attackers, believed to be between 15 and 20, disappeared into the night with his cashbox - coins trailing along the ground after them as they fled into the institute's grounds.

The Auckland Tramways Union is praising the presence of mind of the passenger, who scooped up the butts of cigarettes the youths had been smoking in the rear of the bus and handed them to the police for testing.

The police and an ambulance were quickly on the scene, and the Eagle helicopter swept the area.

But union president Gary Froggatt was less complimentary towards NZ Bus, which runs the Waka Pacific fleet, for not initially taking the attack seriously enough and neither accompanying Mr Singh to Middlemore Hospital nor visiting him at home until yesterday.

It was left to the injured driver to call his wife, Satpal Kaur, from the ambulance.

She told the Herald she was shocked to find him unattended in hospital in a wheelchair while waiting for his swollen head to be x-rayed, before she was able to take him home late on Friday night.

"This was shocking because someone has gone through such a horrible experience and the company didn't bother to accompany him until the time we reached [the hospital]."

NZ Bus spokeswoman Megan McSweeney acknowledged the company had slipped up badly, saying new staff who were working in the control room would receive extra training.

She said a staff member phoned Mr Singh's wife four times but was unable to get through and failed to pass on information to a colleague at the end of a shift.

"So absolutely the ball was dropped and we've been most apologetic to both the driver and his wife," she said.

Mr Froggatt said he and other union leaders were satisfied enough with safety assurances offered by the company late yesterday to call off a stopwork meeting planned for tomorrow at its Wiri depot.

He said the company had agreed to reconsider a decision not to install security cameras in nightshift buses, and to look at introducing more security screens.

It had also agreed to set up a working party to assess all bus stops, street lighting and other safety issues around South Auckland before seeking a meeting with Auckland Regional Council and Manukau City.

"We accept the company can't put a conductor with a shotgun on every bus, but there has to be a balance regarding safety," he said.

There had been several robberies of Auckland drivers in the past year, and a recent spate of attacks on buses in the southern suburbs involving smashed windows and other vehicle damage.

Auckland rail workers were also on the verge last week of a major stopwork action, before Veolia Transport promised safety improvements after the robbery of a female train manager.