Accessibility rights advocates are calling on the STM to impose safety measures after a 92-year-old woman was badly beaten by another passenger while using the city’s adapted transit service.
Two months after the attack, Hanka Fogelman is still traumatized.
“My eyes are just -- I can’t keep them open,” she said.
A Holocaust survivor, Fogelman remembers the attack vividly.
“Very fast punching my face. In my face, in my head. Very, very strong like boxing somebody, you know, and it was very hard to take this,” she said.
On Nov. 11, Fogelman was going to visit one of her daughters in a taxi adapted for people with reduced mobility. The STM runs the adapted transit service.
Moments after she got in, another passenger suddenly began hitting her. He punched the elderly woman in the face, giving her two black eyes.
“Blood started coming from my nose, very heavy. Oh my God, it was a very hard time to go through this, to lose so much blood,” she said.
Someone called 911, and Fogelman was taken to hospital.
Family friend Peter Rona filed a police report and made a complaint with the STM – but other than opening a file, they've provided no answers to his questions: Did the driver of STM know the passenger was aggressive? Who is the attacker? Will he be charged?
“It’s just an incident report, that this is the day, this is where it happened and this is what happened,” he said.
In a statement, the STM said: “At the time of the incident, nothing led us to believe that the customer was in danger by being paired with the other customer,” adding, “We have reassured her family that she would not see her alleged attacker in our vehicles again for a while…. Fortunately, this kind of event happens very rarely in our vehicles."
Not surprised: accessibility rights group
“I was horrified, but not so much surprised,” said Laurent Morissette, president of accessibility rights group RAPLIQ.
Morissette said the group receives an average of three complaints of attacks or misconduct in adapted public transit per year – and said the real number is likely higher.
He's calling on the STM to change its policy to better protect adapted transit users, who typically have reduced mobility.
“For a person with mental health issues, they should be accompanied at any time with a person that has the skills and is knowledgeable to deal with (them),” he said.
Fogelman is hoping sharing her story will help make adaptive public transit safer.
“It's hard to sleep and to think about it,” she said. “It should never happen again to anybody.”
