Detroit bus driver talks about terrifying knife attack

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“Blood was draining all on my neck, all on my shirt and everything. I was scared.”

For more than two decades Ricky Rivers says he been driving a DDOT bus, and he has never had an encounter like the terrifying one he experienced Tuesday.

“When he got on, he tried to order me to take him to the hospital. He told me he had been shot. I said, ‘Okay sir but I can’t take you. I'm not EMS.’”

Rivers says when he refused to take the wannabe passenger to the hospital, the man became violent.

“He got angry and he swung his right hand, cutting me right here in my face and he hit me in my eye.”

Rivers says a group of Good Samaritans outside the bus came to his rescue and he was transported to a local hospital.

The suspect also received treatment and is now in police custody.

Rivers says he's not sure when he will return to work but when he does, he hopes to see one change put in place.

“I would like to see them come up with something like Greyhound has, where the Greyhound drivers are in cages to protect the drivers more.”

DDOT Director Dan Dirks says he is proud of his organization's safety record and believes cameras on buses are making a difference, but still one incident is one too many.

He says his team is reviewing the incident to see if changes are needed.

“Working with the transit police, we've had a couple of meetings and we are looking for their final report on this.”

Rivers says he believes additional police presence would make a major difference because cameras don't always mean safer busses.

“These guys out here don’t care about cameras. They don't care about nothing. They just care about being stupid.”