Article: Rocks in their head as bus attacks surge

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Rocks in their head as bus attacks surge

Rocks in their head as bus attacks surge
DANIEL HURST
November 17, 2009 - 5:38AM

Brisbane City Council buses have seen a 16 per cent rise in rock-throwing and slingshot attacks in the past year, figures released to brisbanetimes.com.au have revealed.

The release of the figures came as police continued their hunt for the criminals who hurled stones at a train on the Gold Coast line after leaving a rock-filled milk crate on the tracks on Sunday.

Queensland Rail, Translink and the Queensland Police Service yesterday said they were unable to provide figures on the frequency of rock attacks against train services.

However, buses continue to be a popular target for rock throwers despite public pleas from police and transport officials for the vandals to stop endangering lives.

A Council spokesman last night said there had been 236 rock and slingshot incidents involving buses between January 1 this year and the end of last month.

This was 33 higher than the number of incidents recorded over the same period last year, he said.

Council last week decided to boost its existing $36,000 a month bus network patrols, with a security car now specifically tailing services on the 330 route travelling through rock-throwing hotspots Bracken Ridge and Chermside on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Public and Active Transport Chair Jane Prentice said the authority had also rolled out anti-shatter glass and employed security guards on all NightLink services.

"The safety of our bus drivers and passengers is paramount and if we have to protect them from the stupidity of a select few, then we will," she said.

"All these measures are also helping the police to identify and catch offenders."

Police yesterday said they had no new leads in their investigation into the attack on the northbound train near the Hope Island Road overpass at Coomera on Sunday about 6.10am.

By tomorrow, detectives should receive the results of DNA and fingerprint forensic tests on the milk crate that was half-filled with rocks and left on the railway line.

brisbanetimes.com.au has been told security footage from the train itself had not helped investigators because it was not fitted with a forward-facing camera.

Although all QR trains have security cameras pointed at passengers in carriages, it is understood older trains are not equipped with devices recording external footage in the direction of travel.

Bond University criminologist Paul Wilson said authorities generally found it hard to track down rock throwers and, like arsonists, they would only be caught if people came forward with information quickly.

"It's an act of vandalism but a particularly malicious form of vandalism where the perpetrators must know they can potentially injure or kill people," Professor Wilson said.

"You'd have to be nearly mentally deficient not to realise you can potentially kill or hurt people."

Earlier this year, the State Government announced new laws to punish rock throwers with up to two years jail for those convicted of endangering the safe use of a vehicle.

It said the new offence would target those at the lower end of the scale, while those who caused serious injury or death would face more serious existing criminal charges.

Rock throwers have targeted buses, trains, taxis, ambulances and other vehicles in recent years.

A nine-year-old girl nearly lost her left eye in May after a rock was thrown at her family's vehicle as they travelled through Alexandra Hills, on Brisbane's bayside.

It happened in the same suburb where a bus was pelted with a rock in March, leaving a teenage girl with a jagged piece of glass protruding from her arm. The incident prompted a passionate appeal against rock throwing by local police.

"This is not a game, you are putting people's lives at risk and it must stop now," Wynnum Police District Inspector Peter Harding said at the time.

But the challenge to rock throwers did not stop incidents in the area.

A taxi driver told the Bayside Bulletin he feared for his life when rocks bigger than cricket balls were thrown at his car as he travelled under a railway overpass at Birkdale early one morning in July.

Driver Inam Alvi said it was the second time in two months his cab had been targeted. Two 17-year-old males were charged over the incident.

Rock throwers have also been striking fear into taxi and bus drivers interstate.

In June, taxi drivers in the Western Australian Goldfields region revealed they were avoiding self-imposed "no go" zones following a rise in rock-throwing incidents. Some night bus services in the region were also suspended.

Although Queensland Rail could not provide figures yesterday, Rail Back On Track spokesman Robert Dow said he did not think rock-throwing attacks against the region's trains had increased in frequency in the past few years.