A veteran bus driver from St. Albert is in hospital this weekend after a brutal beating at the hands of a passenger in Edmonton.
Tom Bregg, 58, of St. Albert was recovering in the intensive care ward of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Friday following a brutal and unprovoked beating at the hands of a passenger Thursday.
According to the police reports, Bregg had been driving an Edmonton Transit Service bus at about 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 3 when he made an unscheduled stop to pick up a passenger. Witnesses suggest that the passenger, a large man in his 20s, appeared to be drunk.
Bregg told the passenger that he was short on his bus fare, said Stu Litwinowich, president of the union that represents ETS drivers. Witnesses said the man loudly asked if anyone on the bus had a dollar for his fare and a young man tossed a loonie in the bin for him. The man continued to yell after the bus started moving.
Bregg stopped the bus near 139 Avenue and Victoria Trail and asked the man to leave. “The guy didn’t like it,” Litwinowich said. “He pulled him out of his seat and darn near beat the life out of him.”
Bregg was buckled in with his glasses on the dash at the time. Witness reports said the man repeatedly struck Bregg before dragging him out of the bus by his coat, stomping on his face multiple times and fleeing the scene. Police arrested him later at a nearby location.
The attack left pools of blood on the bus’s bumper, floor, and front column, as well as the pavement outside. “One of our operators found him and didn’t know he was an operator,” Litwinowich said. “He thought [the bus] had run over a pedestrian at first.”
Bregg was likely unconscious before he was pulled from the bus, he said. Bregg was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital. He has since had two surgical procedures. “It was touch and go for awhile,” Litwinowich said. Nurses report that he was able to respond to verbal commands to touch his finger and thumb together as of Friday.
Bregg is a seasoned driver of 33 years with a heart of gold, Litwinowich said. “Tom has an amazing [family] that absolutely adores him, and our prayers and thoughts are with them.”
There were 66 attacks on Edmonton bus drivers last year, Litwinowich said, which is one reason the union is working to get safety shields for their buses. “This was a random work of violence.”
The Edmonton Police Service has charged 24-year-old Gary Edwin Mattson with attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault on a peace officer in relation to this case.
