A deranged, knife-wielding passenger slashed a city bus driver and tried to steal his chain in Manhattan early Thursday, police said.
Veteran MTA driver Tim Fox had brought the M72 bus to its last stop on West 66th Street and Freedom Place about 8:30 a.m. when the assailant tried to rob him with a switchblade, union officials said.
He cut Fox in the right forearm with a long slash, but ended up fleeing empty-handed.
Fox was taken to Lenox Hospital with minor injuries that did not require stitches, officials added.
“Bus operators are assaulted three times a week on New York City streets,” said transit union boss John Samuelsen, who heads TWU Local 100. “The job is unbearably dangerous and difficult. Where is the outrage from the mayor and New York City Council regarding this plague affecting bus operators?”
Neighbor Shin Rim, 34, said she was shocked to hear about the incident on the crosstown route, which runs from the west side to East 72nd Street and York Avenue.
“Right now I’m pregnant, so every time I go to the East Side I take this bus. A lot of babies take this bus. We have a private school here,” said Rim, who was with her 2-year-old child. “In the Upper West Side, we have so many stabbings and rapings.”