May 2008

Queensway Operator Lee Schwalb can’t help but keep a watchful eye out for the safety of his riders.

Working the evening shift for the past seven years, he says he’s experienced a few incidents that have called for quick action.

Schwalb has been named the 2007 Transit Community Watcher (TCW) of the Year, after he noticed a distraught woman at a bus stop rocking a baby in her arms.

The Operator was driving his bus early one morning when he saw a woman in distress and stopped to ask if she needed help.

“When I got to my first stop at Danforth Ave. and Danforth Rd. I noticed the woman on the ground, she was hysterical at the bus stop and she was shaking this package,” he said. “It wasn’t a package, it was a little baby.”

The woman, he discovered, was the victim of a domestic assault. She was protecting the baby from her husband who was approaching the bus, he said.

Schwalb immediately called Transit Control for assistance and when a Route Supervisor arrived on the scene, the woman was taken to safety.

“It’s really an honour to get this award,” Schwalb said.

Transit Community Watchers report problems that they encounter to Divisional CIS Control, Transit Control, or they call 9-1-1 directly, without becoming physically involved with threatening activity or jeopardizing their personal safety.

Each month a panel representing Local 113, Local 2, Lodge 235, Coupler and Bell Mobility (TCW program co-sponsor) select a winner from a list of nominees submitted by uniformed Supervisors, Toronto Police Service and the public. The monthly winners (Schwalb was the July 2007 winner) are eligible for the annual honour.

The goal of the program is to enhance safety and security on the transit system, in the workplace and in the community.