Bus rider beats driver with umbrella for not moving fast enough

A surveillance image captures the suspect wanted for allegedly beating an MTA bus driver with an umbrella. Photo courtesy of the NYPD.

By Jonathan Sperling

Queens Daily Eagle

An impatient bus passenger is being sought by police after he struck the driver with an umbrella for not driving fast enough.

The violent incident began just after noon Wednesday, when the 56-year-old bus driver was operating a Q8 bus at the corner of Van Wyck Expressway and 101st Ave in Jamaica. A passenger on the bus demanded that the driver move the bus and then proceeded to hit the driver in the head and body with a folded umbrella.

Police from the 102nd Precinct responded to the scene and the driver was transported in stable condition to Jamaica Medical Center with a cut on his head and a bruised rib cage. The suspect, caught on surveillance video, fled the bus southbound on the Van Wyck Expressway service road.

A widespread MTA advertising campaign states that assaulting bus operators is a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.