Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
A man has been arrested in Auckland after a bus driver was assaulted at the weekend on the city's North Shore.
Police were called to Akoranga Station on the Northern busway at 1.10pm on Saturday after a driver was injured by a passenger outside of the bus.
Officers arrested a 31-year-old Hillcrest man, charging him with wilful damage and injuring with intent to injure.
He was expected to appear in North Shore District court on Friday.
It was the second case involving a bus driver being at the weekend, with another driver abused by a passenger on route 18 bus near Western Springs, before the passenger later damaged the bus's windshield with a rock.
An Auckland Transport spokesperson said they were seeing an average of one physical attack against drivers per week.
"This is totally unacceptable and our bus drivers deserve to be safe and feel safe at work each day," they said.
"AT runs about 88,000 bus services a week, carrying passengers for about 1.4 million trips and the vast majority of Auckland's bus trips run without incident.
"Public transport is a safe way to travel around Auckland but one attack a week is still too many. We are committed to working with unions, our bus operators, partner agencies and communities on ways to further improve safety onboard public transport."
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