Train Operator Bitten by Emotionally Disturbed Man After Intervening in Attack on Female Passenger

AUGUST 23—A Train Operator working the D line Friday night was bitten in the leg by an emotionally disturbed man after he intervened in an attack on a female passenger.

Train Operator Ellerbee, with seven years on the job, was quick to react when he heard a child’s cries and stepped out of his cab to see a crazed man yelling and lunging at straphangers while aboard the train near the Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn.

“I heard a kid say ‘Driver, driver’. I stopped the train outside Stillwell,” said Ellerbee. “When I came out, he had the girl on the wall,” said Ellerbee, who described a woman being cornered while the man yelled “zombie-like words”.

“He backed off her and he lunged at me but he didn’t do anything. I told the guy sit the f down and don’t move. He went and sat down and I thought it was over.”

TWU Local 100 Hosts Kick-off Reception for Cancer fundraiser

AUGUST 20—TWU Local 100 leadership and others hosted the 20th Anniversary Kick-off Reception for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of The Bronx on Tuesday evening.

The celebration, held at a Cuban restaurant on Grand Concourse, was the first of what will be a series of events sponsored by the American Cancer Society to raise awareness and funding for breast cancer research.

“We get a lot of requests for donations from different organizations, and I have to tell you, I have no problem signing this check for American Cancer Society,” TWU Local 100 President John V. Chiarello said to applause from the crowd. “This is a very worthwhile cause because like I said, everyone knows someone who has had cancer.”

Defending Our Horses -- and Their Drivers

AUGUST 14 -- TWU Local 100 is fighting to preserve a 167-year-old tradition—taking horse-carriage rides in Central Park—and  protecting hundreds of blue-collar jobs.

Carriage rides in the city’s most famous park began when the first section opened in 1858. The tradition faces opposition from some City Council members, animal rights extremists, and now the non-profit Central Park Conservancy, which ludicrously claimed earlier this week the horse-carriages pose a safety risk to the public. 

Appearing on Eyewitness News, shop steward and Carriage-Horse Driver Christina Hansen said the real danger in the park comes from the hordes of e-bikes, motorized scooters, and illegally motorized pedicabs.  

“[The Parks Conservancy] is more interested in making the park a place for anybody with an e-bike or e-vehicle to zoom around. It’s total chaos.”