LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The House Committee on Criminal Justice passed a series of bills that affect penalties for those who injure public transport operators, as there has been a rise in attacks on public transportation workers, according to testimony from the Transportation Trades Department (TTD).
“It is an outrage that on any day, working people who staff the front lines of our passenger transportation system face brutal assaults and abusive and unruly behavior by the users of the system,” the group said. “The reality is this has long been a problem that plagues our transportation workforce. The pandemic has only made it worse and shines a spotlight on the failure of our government and employers to act aggressively to put a stop to it.”
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The two House Bills considered by the committee would clearly define penalties for any individual who “assaults, batters, or assaults and batters an individual while they are performing their duties as the operator of a bus, street railway vehicle, or train,” as well as perform the same attacks an individual “because of their status” as an employee of those service providers.
Representative Kelly Breen (D-Novi) shared about two substitutes that passed which affected HB 4917 and 4918, changing sentencing guidelines.
“These are very similar to the violence against nurses act, as we colloquially call it,” she said. “Instead of an automatic five year penalty, these are tiered out into three separate levels of assault.”
The three tiers include: simple, aggravated, and felonious assault according to Breen.
“For the first instance if somebody is found guilty of this, the criminal sentencing portion stays the same, but the financial penalty would be doubled, of course with prosecutorial discretion,” she added, “however if there is an instance where someone assaults a driver a second time, or thereafter, the assault as well as the criminal sentencing would double.”
The fines would rise from $500 to $1,000 for the first instance, and a second and thereafter would be $2,000 according to Rep. Breen.
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