A Q train conductor was hospitalized after getting sucker punched while on the job Tuesday, according to police and the transit union.
An unidentified man believed to be in his 30s or 40s struck the conductor, Frank Sbano, 60, after Sbano’s Brighton Beach-bound train arrived at the Prospect Park station, according to TWU Local 100 and an NYPD spokesman.
“I was just nailed in the head. I have no idea why,” Sbano, of Staten Island, told the union. “I was looking to make sure everyone was getting on and off and the next thing I knew, I got nailed.”
Sbano, a 21-year veteran at the MTA, suffered cuts and bruises on his head and was transported in stable condition to Kings County Hospital, where he was awaiting a CT scan.
TWU Local 100 president Tony Utano said it was just the latest in a spate of MTA worker assaults. He called for the authority to launch a voluntary body camera program for train crews in order to help police catch riders who assault workers.
“This will help authorities identify, arrest and prosecute those who are responsible for these attacks,” Utano said in a statement. “Cameras must only be used as a deterrent to criminal assaults and for evidence gathering when an assault occurs and never for worker surveillance.”
It was not immediately clear why the attack took place and no arrests have been made, the police spokesman said.
MTA chairman Joseph Lhota pledged to work to keep workers safe. The MTA did not provide statistics on worker-related assaults.
“An attack on one of our employees is an attack on all of us — and this kind of conduct against the women and men who move millions of New Yorkers every day is unacceptable,” Lhota said in a statement. “We are going to work with our union partners and law enforcement to do everything we can to not only catch and prosecute the perpetrators but to also prevent these horrible incidents from happening.”
