Kingston.
A bus driver was attacked and seriously wounded by students by several students from a secondary school yesterday. yesterday.
Errol Lemard, 46, a bus driver with the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) Errol Lemard, was taken to hospital and treated for stab wounds and bruises inflicted all over his body after he was allegedly pounced upon by a mob of students dressed in Calabar High School uniforms.
It is unclear if any of the students were charged but a police report stated that nine students were taken into police custody and arrangements were being made for them to be questioned.
JUTC Director of Communication Reginald Allen, who visited the driver at the Spanish Town Hospital, said what transpired yesterday was "significantly concerning" for the staff at the bus compaany.
"It's rather amazing that it is students we are talking about here. In the same persona you have both students and hardened criminals because that is the activity you would expect from hardened criminals. They damaged the bus, they robbed the bus and they injured the operator", Allen said.
According to Allen, the attack on Lemard took place while he was driving along a section of Constant Spring Road from Half-Way Tree in St Andrew.
Lemard heard a loud noise at the back of the bus and stopped to investigate. Upon investigation, he found out that students had pulled open the emergency vent in the roof of the bus.
"The driver stopped and declared that it was unsafe to continue driving that bus because the top was exposed. While he was outside protesting, some students went up to the front to where the driver operates and went into where the money was. He intervened and a boy attacked him from in the bus, came outside and a group of them kicked him all over. He got a wound below his right eye and he is now having back pain," told journalists.
Allen said he was shocked that the incident took place in full view of passengers and other persons travelling along the road.
"This was a packed bus as far as the driver reported, so everybody saw. It happened at 8 a.m. at the bus stop in front of Merl Grove; busy Constant Spring Road," he lamented.
"It seems a bit of a lesson for the society at large in terms of school administration and what's really happening. These are students", Allen added.
He was unable to say the amount of money that was stolen by the students.
