The bus driver has been hailed for his reaction to a fatally stabbing on the number 74 bus, in Onehunga, on Wednesday. Photo: RNZ / Lucy Xia
The driver of the bus on which a woman was fatally attacked has been praised by Auckland Transport for trying to help the woman and other passengers, and doing everything right.
A man has handed himself in to police, after a manhunt following the stabbing on the number 74 bus in Onehunga on Wednesday.
The woman died at the scene. There were nine other passengers onboard.
As the attack took place, the driver hit the panic button to call for help, and pulled over to get his other passengers off the bus, Auckland Transport's public transport director Stacey van der Putten told Checkpoint.
He also tried to help the woman who had been attacked.
Auckland Transport speaks on Onehunga bus stabbing incident
"It must have been a shocking situation for them to encounter, and by all means [the driver has] done everything right, in terms of stopping the bus, making sure the customers are safe and getting help, so we do applaud them. They've done a really exceptional job," she said.
"[The public transport operators] are all pretty devastated ... it's a bit of a shocking incident, the driver's doing okay, under the circumstances ... all of us here at Auckland Transport, we're devastated by this."
The driver had been offered support and given the day off, van der Putten said, and the operators were following a "very thorough post-incident process" and had good support processes.
Auckland Transport's public transport director Stacey van der Putten. Photo: RNZ / Rayssa Almeida
"The last couple of years we have seen a big increase in anti-social behaviour" on public transport, she said: "There's more of it, people see more of it."
Police said it appeared the attack was random and there was no altercation beforehand, but the man was known to police.
Police are still appealing for witnesses to the incident.
Van der Putten said Auckland Transport aimed to have 80 percent of buses equipped with perspex barriers in the next two years, to protect drivers, but this bus did not have one. All buses are equipped with CCTV cameras, GPS tracking and driver panic buttons.
Staff at the bus depot can respond to driver panic alerts and immediately see what is happening on the bus and dispatch police to the drivers' location. In this case, the CCTV footage was able to be provided to police immediately after the incident by staff at the depot.
Auckland-based ACT list MP Parmjeet Parmar earlier said this bus - and all Auckland buses - were not equipped with first aid kits.
Auckland's transport network has 54 safety officers at the moment, which van der Putten described as a "limited number", given the size of the network they cover. There are currently another eight in training, but no budget for any more.
Safety officers wear body cameras and are trained in de-escalation but do not have stab-proof vests and have limited powers to intervene. They must also keep themselves safe, van der Putten said.
She said people experiencing concerning behaviour on public transport should always report it, as it helped inform decisions about where the safety officers are sent.
Auckland Transport were also working with some local initiatives to combat crime on buses.
"We need to look at why these issues are occurring ... in the first place ... as a community ", van der Putten said.
"We can't solve this on our own ... more money would be great, but this is not a money conversation, it needs a lot more than that. It needs other agency involvement.
"These social issues - these are very very complex, no amount of guards everywhere is going to solve this."