King County holds safety meeting after bus driver murder

The King County Council held a meeting on bus safety on Monday. "We’re here today because of a tragedy," King County Council Chair Claudia Balducci said. That tragedy, the death of bus driver Shawn Yim, who was killed one month ago by one of his passengers.

Balducci said while it was the tragedy that prompted the meeting, now is the time to turn to action and to focus on preventing this from happening again. The council has a key role and responsibility in making sure that safety is and will be the top priority of this county and they must follow that with action, according to Balducci. 

One of the meeting’s speakers informed the group that at the local level, the council serves as the Metro’s board of directors and its oversight, and that includes budget oversight. They painted a picture of that budget, including how it allowed for additional funding that more than doubled the number of contracted security transit officers from 70 in 2022, to 160 through 2025, but transit members said that’s not enough and more needs to be done. 

"Will you exercise your authority to address our immediate solutions, will you empower operators to implement safety measures now not months or years from now. Help us put safety over service before we lose another life, the time for action is now, our lives depend on your decision," one transit operator, who has been in the field for more than 20 years said during the public comment portion of the meeting.

An Alaska Airlines flight attendant also spoke during public comment. She said so many of her colleagues use the Metro system, and they too are concerned when it comes to safety.

"You know 9/11 was not that long ago, we protect our pilots, we protect our guests, we need to protect our Metro people," she said. 

The King County Council also heard from a panel of officers of ATU Local 587. 

"We have a public safety problem, not a transit problem," Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 President Greg Woodfill said. 

They added, front line employees don’t have enough resources to combat the homelessness, mental illness and drug and alcohol abuse that they’re seeing every day and leads to criminal activity. Some drivers have called for security partitions installed between them and the passenger. 

"Our members face the threat of assault daily, far too often they’re slapped, punched, kicked, pepper sprayed and overcome with fentanyl and drug exposure," Woodfill said.

During Monday’s meeting, there were also talks about the creation of a task force and having a zero-tolerance policy, because when something happens to the operators, there’s often no punishment and those individuals are allowed back on the bus the next day.

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Richard Sitzlack, 53, faces multiple charges, including first-degree murder and two counts of assault.

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn introduced legislation on Monday, following that meeting. The legislation calls for a Regional Transit Safety Taskforce to address public safety concerns on and around public transit systems.

Representatives from the King County Sheriff’s Office, Sound Transit, Metro and the Director of County Community and Human Services were also present and participated in the meeting.  

Balducci ended the meeting by saying she would like the council to have regular discussions on this and how they’re doing to hold them accountable and make sure they’re doing all they can to make sure what happened to Yim doesn’t happen again.

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