Miffed At Your Bus Driver? Say It, Don’t Spray It

We’ve seen irate passengers menace drivers with metal hook appendages–quite recently, in fact–but we’ve (thankfully) never seen one spit on a driver.

Yet it happens–quite a bit, in fact.

The NY Times says there were 51 reported “spat upon” incidents, as they are known in bus driver ranks.

On average, the recipients of the spat upons took 64 days of paid leave to recover; one took all of 191 days–with pay.

Needless to say, being spat upon would be nothing short of traumatic. How long would it take before you felt you could get back on the job? It’s hard to say.

MTA execs say it’s a tough cost to, uh, swallow in light of the massive MTA budget shortfall.

Reports the Times:

Transit officials, facing a budget shortfall of $400 million, called the numbers troubling. “We have to see what we’re going to do with that,” said Joseph Smith, who oversees bus operations for New York City Transit.