Christchurch police are scouring the city for three youths who assaulted a city bus driver last night.
Bus driver Tony de Ruiter, 46, spent the night in hospital after being punched in the head at an inner city bus stop.
It was the second time he had been assaulted while on the
job, and brings the number of attacks on Christchurch bus drivers to four this year.
Police said it appeared one person got onto Mr de Ruiter's bus and refused to pay outside Ballantyne's store in Colombo St at 5.30pm yesterday.
Red Bus chief executive Greg Campbell said the company would provide counselling for Mr de Ruiter.
"These sort of attacks do occur in Auckland and Wellington also," he told NZPA today.
"We could enclose drivers away from our customers and we do not rule anything out but we want to ensure emotion doesn't take over."
The driver's wife Yolanda De Ruiter said bottles being thrown at drivers' bus windows was common.
"It's like a Third World country out there at night. I just want people to know how bad it is out there."
Red Bus carried 13.5 million passengers last year, an increase of 26 per cent as the city is moving to provide a more comprehensive public transport system.
"Our 350 drivers travel a collective 15 million kilometres a year over a 365-day, 21-hours a day period," Mr Campbell said.
Yesterday's assault follows a 16-year-old girl hitting a bus driver in May at the city's bus exchange. She broke the driver's glasses, cutting his nose, and bruising his eye socket.
In April, two bus drivers were punched outside the exchange after a dispute with two teenagers.
A Christchurch City Council report in February said there had been 31 physical assaults and four assaults with a weapon at the city's new bus exchange since September last year.
- NZPA
