Logan bus driver suffers facial burns in ‘chemical’ attack
A bus driver has suffered burns to his eyes and face after an an unknown substance believed to be chemicals was thrown on him at Loganholme south of Brisbane.
Photo: Derek Orford
The man was sitting at the wheel of his bus when the liquid was thrown at him through the driver’s side window about 9.30am.
The driver was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital.
The Queensland Ambulance Service said the substance was a “chemical irritant”.
Police say no passengers were on the bus and no one else was injured in the attack.
The injured driver works for Clarks Logan City Bus Service.
General manager Martin Hall said the driver, a man aged in his mid-30s, had finished the school run and was on his way back to the depot when the attack happened.
“It looks like a liquid was thrown at the bus from a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction … it hit the driver through the open window in the bus,” he said.
Mr Hall said he was attacked with “some sort of acid-based chemical”
“No-one goes to work to get assaulted, and certainly bus drivers have a tough enough gig at the best of times, and to be assaulted in your course of duty is absolutely disgusting,” Hall said.
He said the driver should be discharged from hospital later today.
“We have spoken to him and he’s doing OK,” he said.
“He’s being released this afternoon once the eye doctor’s given him a once over.”
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) said it was “a despicable act, perpetrated by the lowest of the low”.
TWU Queensland branch secretary Peter Biagini said it was a “senseless attack” against someone “performing a vital public service”.
“Once again, drivers are in the firing line,” he said.
“Bus drivers have had enough. They work day in and day out to ensure that Queenslanders can get to where they need to go and this is how they are treated.
“I hope that this coward is caught, charged and jailed for this abhorrent attack.”
The TWU said it had spent years campaigning for better security on buses in the wake of the death of Brisbane driver 29-year-old Manmeet Alisher, who was also known as Manmeet Sharma.
Alisher died after a man threw a homemade petrol bomb at him and set him alight at Moorooka in Brisbane’s south in October 2016.
The TWU has called for an urgent meeting of the Bus Safety Forum to bolster driver protections in Queensland.
Officers are appealing for people with dashcam or CCTV footage of Drews Rd and Jalan St between 9am and 10am to contact them.
