Alison Healy hears bus drivers' tales of woe on one city route
When you go to work, you don't expect your customers to urinate on you. Nor do you expect them to spit at you, attack you with syringes or throw your furniture out the window.
But these are all regular occurrences on the 77 bus route to West Tallaght, according to drivers who spoke to The Irish Times yesterday. The Dublin Bus drivers had just returned to work after an unofficial stoppage early yesterday morning.
All drivers interviewed stressed that the vast majority of Tallaght residents did not cause problems, but said a small group had turned the route into one of the most dangerous in Dublin.
"I'm off to Beirut now," said a driver leaving the Ringsend garage in a 77 bus yesterday. "That's what they are calling it, Beirut or Rwanda," said Mr Anthony Kennedy, the National Bus and Rail Workers' Union drivers' representative.
"You should see the state of the buses when they come back in. I couldn't tell you what they find," he said.
Other drivers were more specific. "They go to the toilet in both ways, if you know what I mean. Anything goes, upstairs. The girls leave used sanitary towels. They change nappies and throw the dirty ones there. You could put your hand on one if you weren't careful. They inject themselves," one driver said.
Syringes full of red liquid have been found with the needles sticking up.
No matter what violence erupts on the bus, drivers are told to remain in their seats. "You have to stay in your cab because if you get out and you are assaulted, it's your own fault," he said. "They will say, why did you leave the cab?"
Drivers are supposed to radio for help, but they lose coverage in some areas of Tallaght and cannot make the connection. "And God help you if the bus breaks down. You are a sitting target. You could be waiting two hours."
All drivers said gardaí had been very supportive, "but they have to put up with the same things".
Most did not want their names publicised in case they were targeted by youths. Mick, a young father of two, has been on the route for about six weeks.
Sitting in his bus, he pointed to a slot above his head which connected with the mirror on the top deck of the bus. "They urinate down on top of us through that," he said.
He had seen children jumping from a window on the top deck at a bus stop, instead of coming down the stairs. Throwing bottles, spitting and smoking drugs were routine events.
"At the end of the night, you would be stoned from the amount of dope being smoked on the bus.
"The pity is that it is a small number of people in Tallaght. I was off for a week and when I came back a man gave me a €5 note for a tip. Most of them are very nice people."
He believes parents are to blame in many cases. He has seen children as young as eight on the last bus at 11.30 p.m. "When I was a young fellow, you would be in bed at 7 o'clock. Where are their parents?"
One driver had his bus stolen. He had left the vehicle to adjust a panel at the back when a youth drove off with it.
Mr Joe Deegan said he had been spat at, threatened and told he was going to be shot as he drove the route. He recalled one driver who went halfway to Tallaght, turned round and handed in his notice. "He said he wasn't going to take it."