Union representing bus drivers calls for increased safety in wake of violent attack in downtown Kelowna – Okanagan [Video]

A Kelowna bus driver is recovering after a violent attack early Tuesday morning.

“I’m still shocked,” said Scott Lovell, a representative of the driver’s union, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1722. “It’s very fresh.”

The victim is a 70-year-old man with decades of experience. He was sent to hospital with some significant injuries.

“He has a broken nose, damaged hip, possibly some ribs,” Lovell told Global News.

The incident unfolded at the Queensway Bus Exchange in downtown Kelowna at around 6:30 a.m.

According to the union, a man, believed to be experiencing homelessness, boarded a bus.

However, when the female bus driver told him not to use the bus as a place to sleep, he became agitated.

Concerned, the victim, who was nearby intervened to help and that’s when he was attacked.

“We are not protected very well,” Lovell said. “We are undermanned, understaffed. With everything going on in our city, from …