Fight and letting off a drunken passenger: the police can also impose penalties on witnesses and drivers

“After a while, he drank from the bottle and it fell out of his hands at one point. The bus driver noticed it because it echoed throughout the bus. He probably said to satirize, but he wasn’t interested. He picked up the bottle, everything was sticky,” says the passenger.

The public transport driver did not like such activities very much and stopped the bus to talk to the uncomfortable passenger. Or rather, to kick the man off the bus. The intoxicated traveler denied his guilt in ransacking the cabin, and also did not admit that he had consumed alcohol at all.

One of the passengers came to help the bus driver, who was trying to get the drinker off. Unfortunately, none of the men could control their emotions and a fight broke out.

“He resisted there, two of them tried to lift him up, and when they lifted him up, he got angry and immediately hit the driver in the face,” says the passenger.

The battered passenger was left lying in a snowy ditch in the middle of nowhere. Witnesses watched with wide eyes as the door of the bus cabin closed and the driver resumed his journey to Riga. The police were not called, and the medics did not know anything about the fight.

The representative of the State Police, Zane Vaskane, informs that the incident was not reported to the police, the law enforcement officers learned about it from social networks. Accordingly, the police contacted the carrier. Currently, a police report has been received in connection with the incident, and the circumstances of the incident, as well as the persons involved, are being explained.

Employees of SIA “VTU Valmiera” are responsible for what happens on the buses on this route. Company representatives deny that the bus driver acted against protocol. Namely, the manager of the Valmiera bus park diligently explains why the involvement of law enforcement officers was not necessary.

“Understand, you always have to wait for the police, at the same time we are Valmiera residents and we have a very good relationship with the municipal police in Valmiera, we know that they will arrive within five or ten minutes. In another district, those officers might need longer. The bus driver had to make an adequate decision to resolve this situation. By nature, it is not necessary to call the police if the passenger got off outside, he was not on the bus,” explains Zigurds Lapers, manager of the Valmiera bus park of SIA “VTU Valmiera”.

Police representatives do not agree with this position. Namely, seeing a criminal offense, both the driver and the passengers should have called the law enforcement officers, and shirking responsibility can end badly. For example, if the beaten man had remained in the ditch and died either from his injuries or for other reasons, all the people involved – including the witnesses – would have to be held accountable before the law for their inaction. At the moment, the police are still deciding whether the administrative offense should be applied only to the passenger who raised his hands, or to the eyewitnesses, including the bus driver.

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