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TriMet says the man in this grainy security video image assaulted a bus driver on Thursday night.

TriMet has offered a $1,000 reward in the beating of a female bus driver in North Portland's St. Johns neighborhood on Thursday night.

Al Margulies, scanner watcher and author of the Rantings of a Former TriMet Bus Driver blog, recorded the woman's frantic call to dispatchers after the attack.

Warning: The recording contains language that some readers might find offensive.

After the driver told the man – described as 5-foot-5 and 300 pounds – that he had not paid the correct fare, "he had a cow about it," she told dispatchers.

"He hit me in the head about 15 times," the driver said. "I can't see myself. I don't know what I look like."

After several minutes, she gets upset that she didn't hear ambulance sirens. "What's taking them so long?" she asked.

The driver was treated at the scene.

Interestingly, a few bus drivers seized on the attack to criticize TriMet and even the media for downplaying the dangers of being a transit operator.

On Facebook, driver Dan Christensen posted: "I wonder when Trimet took the media for fun rides in busses (sic) so they could see how easy it is to be a bus driver if they put them through something like this?"

Driver Khris Alexander posted this: "HOPE THE MEDIA AND THE UNION DO SOMETHING."

As for union representatives, they didn't return calls on Friday morning.

Earlier this year, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index put bus drivers at the top of the list of occupations most likely to make workers obese. But as it fights to preserve a generous health benefits package for TriMet operators, Amalgamated Transit Union 757 has made the case that being a bus driver is also one of America's most dangerous jobs.

&lt;a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/7644469/"&gt;Should 'transit operator' be classsified as a high-risk profession in order to receive tax breaks under ObamaCare?&lt;/a&gt;

Unfortunately, for TriMet and tax payers, who will eventually have to pay millions to cover the Affordable Care Act's excise tax on generous "cadillac" health insurance plans, transit worker is not defined as a high-risk profession qualifying for savings.

Those professions include: Law enforcement, fire, emergency medical responders, longshoremen, construction, mining, agriculture, forestry and fishing.

TriMet released assault figures for employees, not just operators, for all of 2011 and 2012, and January through October 2013.

Still, on OregonLive, reader Salmonkev commented: "I'm beginning to think the bus drivers deserve combat pay lately. Don't we get news every month of some rider going psycho and attacking drivers or riders? You can't make this stuff up. No exaggerations needed."

UPDATE: TriMet has released a photo of the attacker. "It's the clearest we can make the photo, but it appears the suspect has a beard as well as a mustache," said TriMet spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt. TriMet also released assault figures (above) for employees, not just operators, for all of 2011 and 2012, and January through October 2013. "Aggravated assaults are those that involve a weapon; simple assaults do not involve a weapon," Altstadt said.



-- Joseph Rose