MTA Bus Driver Punched On Duty In Queens, Attacker At Large: NYPD

ADDISLEIGH PARK, NY - An MTA bus driver was sucker punched in the face while driving a late-night bus route in Queens last month, authorities said.

The 38-year-old bus driver was working on the Q85 bus route on the corner of Merrick Boulevard and 109th Avenue in Addisleigh Park on Oct. 23 when the attacker struck the driver in the face with a closed fist about 10:33 p.m., police said.

The victim suffered pain and swelling to the face and refused medical attention.

The attacker, described as a 40- to 45-year-old man wearing dark shorts and a green sweatshirt, remains at large, police said.

Anyone with information in regard to the incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

The incident serves as the latest report in a string of violence on MTA buses and trains, officials said.

Last week, two women were punched on a Q6 bus near 91st Avenue and Van Wyck Expressway in Jamaica after their attacker spewed anti-gay slurs at them, the New York Post reported.

Three people were punched in the face in three separate instances on MTA trains last week, sending one man to the hospital with a brain bleed after his head hit a Q train leaving a Brooklyn station.

A pregnant woman in Queens was kicked in the stomach after an argument on the subway last week, and strangers pulled knives on two teenagers in Queens and the Upper West Side, police said.

Across the city, transit crimes — including all complaints and arrests within the transit system — increased slightly in October as compared to last year, police data show. But so far this year, transit crimes have dropped citywide by 4.1 percent.

-With reporting by Emily Rahhal.