Fear of getting assaulted, drug use are factors in RTD driver shortage [Video]

Robert Pumphrey pulled his RTD bus into the Westminster public transit station earlier this month, got out and faced a belligerent man who head-butted Pumphrey and punched him in the face.

An ambulance took Pumphrey, 68, to a hospital for treatment. His eye and the side of his face swollen, he was driving again three days later but wondered whether the attacker might return — “the first thing on my mind,” Pumphrey said during a break, ruling out retirement. “I’m a senior citizen. But in this day and age, you’ve got to keep working to make a living.”

In January, a Regional Transportation District driver at the end of her Colfax Avenue route went to the back of her bus to roust a rider who seemed to have fallen asleep, standard protocol. He popped up and assaulted her, leaving her bruised with broken ribs. She, too, was planning to keep driving after completing physical therapy.

As …