A Christchurch father feels “disgusted” after his son with a disability was attacked, unprovoked, while on the bus last Friday night.
The boy, who 1News has agreed not to name, had just left the bus interchange in central Christchurch on February 17 when a group of teenage boys started harassing him.
They pushed the boy while he was sitting in his seat. Soon, the harassment escalated to a full-blown assault.
The boy was punched and hit in the face by the group, all while other passengers sat and watched, not intervening at all.
He fought back, eventually getting one of the alleged attackers into a headlock, which is when the driver intervened.
The offenders fled the scene, and the driver let the boy use his phone to call the police.
The boy's father said he was “disgusted” by the attack, saying the youths “took advantage of my son”.
“It’s just disgusting… my son now feels like he can’t take the bus at night.
“It seems like these kids are riding around on buses looking for vulnerable people to prey on.”
On Wednesday, 1News reported on a young Christchurch woman living with disabilities who was attacked while getting off the bus.
The father of the boy told 1News that Christchurch buses have a reputation for being unsafe at night, saying he’d never use them after dark.
'Don't take the bus at night'
“I was on the bus talking to a group of university students one day, I asked them how they felt, and they said, ‘don’t take the bus at night’.”
He wants to see changes to security at the bus interchange and on board the vehicles themselves.
“Security is just too unequipped to deal with it. We need police going around the network so they can actually do something,” he said.
However, the thing that most upset the father was how none of the passengers came to his son’s aid.
“It disgusted me,” he said.
“It’s such a cowardly thing to do; nobody helped him when he needed it most.”
"They could tell he was vulnerable and still did nothing to help."
“It’s really knocked my son's confidence; he no longer wants to take the bus at night time,” he said.
Police said investigations into the incident are still ongoing.
Christchurch Metro told 1News they were "sorry and appalled" by the incident, saying: "such behaviour has no place on our network."
"Environment Canterbury takes the safety of passengers very seriously and continues to actively work with its partners and police to make sure customers and staff feel safe when using public transport."
They encouraged the victim and his family to get in contact with them to tell their story.
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