THUNDER BAY — COVID-19 has caused Thunder Bay Transit to pause its plan to install heavy-duty security screens on buses to prevent assaults against drivers.
However, the lighter-duty bio-shields that are already in place in most of the fleet – expressly to protect against the spread of COVID-19 – will remain in use while the security screens are reevaluated.
They were installed in just two buses in July with the intention of testing their effectiveness in what was scheduled to be a three-month experiment.
After a few weeks, both buses were pulled off the road because of concerns about the virus.
Transit manager Brad Loroff says "There's been some concerns with respect to whether they provide as much protection as the bioshields do, because the bioshields wrap closer to the front of the windshield, whereas the security screens only come, I believe, two inches past the metal frame of the unit."
Loroff explained that the two types of devices were designed for completely different purposes.
"The security shields are designed for just that. They're a bulkier metal frame design that's meant to protect the operator. But the bioshields are just quarter-inch [polycarbonate] Lexan. And the purpose is just to provide separation between the operator and passengers for the protection from the pandemic."
Transit initially considered modifying the security screens, but decided to hold off pending further consideration by the joint union/management safety committee.
Loroff said transit will also work with the manufacturer "on getting it right" before proceeding.
"Now that we've been impacted by this pandemic, like everyone else, we don't want to spend a lot of capital on something that may not provide proper pandemic protection down the road when the next one comes," he said.
Security screens are considerably more expensive than bioshields.
Transit is still considering whether to remove them from the two buses in the garage and put the vehicles back in service with bioshields for the time being.
Loroff noted that transit systems everywhere are trying to sort out how to protect drivers from physical assaults and from the virus at the same time, saying the industry is "learning as we go."
