A bus driver impressively described his everyday life in front of the Dachau district court. © IMAGO
Physical attacks, obscene gestures, insults: A bus driver impressively described his everyday life in front of the district court.
Dachau – Bus line 701 connects Karlsfelder Bahnhof with Schwarzhölzlstraße. Once the bus has reached its final stop, the bus driver must ask all guests to get off according to his instructions. When the bus is empty, the bus driver gets a short break on a stand before continuing in the other direction. Line 701 is therefore not a ring line, it connects the 16 stops on the route only in one direction each.
Violent reaction of the woman to request to get out
Why this fact is so important became clear on Thursday in front of the district court. A 31-year-old Nigerian woman was accused of assaulting a 57-year-old bus driver after he had told her at the end point Schwarzhölzlstraße, first objectively, then in a somewhat rougher tone, that she could not drive in circles with line 701.
The mother of three explained in court that she had actually wanted to get off at the Ostenstraße stop and had indicated this by pressing the "Stop" button on the bus. However, the driver ignored this and grabbed her at the end, at the terminus, pulled her hair and pushed her. And the 31-year-old was certain: "He wouldn't have done it that way if I had been a German woman!"
The problem for the defendant: she has a history. Judge Stefan Lorenz gained the impression from previous encounters with her in court that the asylum seeker "tends to aggression when things don't go the way she wants." Two witnesses who had observed the incident at the Schwarzhölzlstraße terminus also described the case as follows: The 31-year-old had beaten and scratched the bus driver.
Two witnesses confirm the description of the bus driver
And the bus driver himself also credibly described the following version of the story in court: As always, his bus drove from the Karlsfeld S-Bahn station in the direction of the final stop Schwarzhölzstraße. As always, he stopped at Ostenstraße – because of the nearby asylum seeker accommodation, many people would get off and on there. At the next station, on Bachweg, there was no requirement for a stop. And at Schwarzhölzlstraße, he had just asked the last remaining passenger to get off. The 31-year-old Turk describes the 57-year-old's reaction as follows: "She scratches me and grabs me by the collar. I couldn't get rid of them!" It was only when the two witnesses appeared and called the police that the angry woman let go of him.
Her defense attorney asked for understanding: The young woman could not have known that the bus was not driving in circles. "She felt she was being treated unfairly." And, as you could see from an audio recording of the scene: "The bus driver unkindly asked her to leave at the end!"
The prosecutor, on the other hand, recalled that the defendant already had a criminal record. "The punishments so far have not led to her being insightful about her aggressive behavior."
In the end, Judge Lorenz showed understanding – towards all parties involved. "I assume that she doesn't have it easy with us," Lorenz said of the defendant, who "has to take care of three children alone." He therefore refused a prison sentence, as demanded by the public prosecutor's office. Instead, he left it at a fine: 900 euros, the 31-year-old has to pay for her freakout.
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Bus driver accepts 31-year-old's apology
But Lorenz didn't want to let them get away cheaply either. What the bus driver described about his work was too impressive. "It's not a nice profession anymore," he said. "We have problems every day. We are threatened, insulted, finger-pointed." Many passengers would also vehemently insist on being "let out between stops", "some want us to drive them to their door". In this respect, he also accepted the apology of the 31-year-old in the end. Basically, according to the MVV employee, he "just doesn't want to have any trouble" on his journeys.
His boss, on the other hand, MVV Managing Director Bernd Rosenbusch, is very concerned about the issue of violence against bus drivers. In order to make the job of the bus driver "permanently more attractive", he emphasizes when asked by the local newspaper, "in a first step" protective screens have already been installed at the entrance.
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