Vernon bus driver assaulted at downtown transit station

VERNON – A Vernon bus driver is recovering in hospital after he was assaulted by a man smoking a cigarette in a non-smoking area this morning.

RCMP say the B.C. Transit driver pulled into the downtown bus station at around 8:45 a.m. today, Aug. 19, and spotted a man smoking a cigarette on one of the benches in a non-smoking area.

When he got out of his bus to have a word with the smoker, the man grabbed him and assaulted him, according to an RCMP media release. The suspect also spat on a woman who tried to intervene.

“Our officers arrived on scene within minutes and located the man a short distance away,” Vernon RCMP media relations officer Cpl. Tania Finn says in the release. “Police arrested him without further incident.”

The bus driver is in hospital with what police call non-life threatening injuries.

A 24-year-old Vernon man remains in custody.

Finn says officers have interviewed a number of witnesses as the investigation continues.

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