On Sunday, 21 July, in tram No. 3, a passenger whose fare was found to be unauthorised attacked two ticket inspectors and hit them in the face and head.
It happened around 12:30 on Gorbachevskogo Street.
“My colleague and I were checking fares. When we checked one of the passengers, we found out that he did not have a successful validation. However, the man denied this and said that he had been validated. Additional checks confirmed that the travel was not validated. After that, he started shouting, swearing and attacked me. When I asked him to calm down, he threatened me with physical violence and suddenly hit me in the face. In addition, he approached another control officer and also hit her on the head. It was a very unpleasant situation, because we were just doing our job. We are still in a state of shock, we were only lucky to escape with bruises. We are also sincerely grateful to all the caring passengers who were on the tram and immediately intervened in the situation – they stood up for us and tried to stop the aggressive man,” said one of the controllers who worked on the route.
The controllers immediately called the police to the scene. A report was drawn up against the passenger under Article 173 of the Code of Administrative Offences (disorderly conduct). The maximum penalty under this article is up to 15 days of administrative arrest. “We are currently awaiting a court decision,” the utility added.
As a reminder, controllers have been working on all city routes in Lviv since the introduction of cashless fares in all public transport on 11 December last year. They assist drivers in working with the e-ticket system equipment, conduct outreach to passengers and identify violators of public transport fares.
We would like to add that if passengers do not pay the fare but do not agree to buy a ticket from the controllers, they can wait for the police to arrive on the spot. In such cases, further decisions are made by law enforcement officers.