A safer future for Queensland bus drivers

The Palaszczuk Government has promised continued action on bus driver safety, releasing its interim response to the Queensland Bus Driver Safety Review today.

The independent review was initiated to better understand the risk of violence towards bus drivers and has identified 20 potential initiatives to improve bus driver safety.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Transport Jackie Trad said that the review was needed to understand the nature, extent and triggers of violence towards bus drivers.

“We have more than 2500 bus drivers across the state — who make around 127 million bus trips each year,” Ms Trad said.

“A majority of customers on-board buses are courteous and respect the important service our bus drivers provide, but a small number of passengers threaten, verbally abuse or physically harm our drivers – which is completely unacceptable.

“Everyone has a right to go to work and come home each day, safe and free from abuse, and we are absolutely determined to do what we can to protect our bus drivers.

“Out of the 20 initiatives identified in the review, we are already making progress on 11, including a promising first trial of anti-shatter film on Gold Coast and Cairns buses and expanding the Bus Safety Forum.”

Key initiatives from the review already in progress include:

• mandating installation of duress alarms, digital radio and CCTV
• trialling and evaluating anti-shatter film on 30 Gold Coast and 10 Cairns buses
• evaluating the effectiveness of partial driver barriers currently in use
• refreshing the existing Student Code of Conduct and creating a new Code for general bus passenger use
• developing a public awareness campaign regarding bus driver safety
• investigating statewide roll-out of de-escalation training for bus drivers
• increasing the frequency of Bus Safety Forum meetings from two to six per year, and expanding the membership to include bus drivers and Senior Network Officers.

“The Palaszczuk Government will continue to work with key stakeholders to further investigate what we can do in areas such as policing, contract terms, driver recruitment and high-risk passenger management,” Ms Trad said.

“The safety of our bus drivers is an issue that affects our broader community and it is one that this government is determined to address.”

The documents can be found here: https://translink.com.au/about-translink/projects-and-initiatives/bus-driver-safety-review

ENDS

Media contact: Anna Jabour 0429 890 942