A young woman fears for her life while riding city buses after suffering a concussion from an unprovoked attack Thursday afternoon.

Kayla Pretti, 21, was taking the bus to work down Marion Street to Archibald Street when she says an older man sitting behind her flew into a sudden rage.

"I was talking on my phone quietly and minding my own business and this guys spits on the back of my head," Pretti said Saturday. "I turned around and asked, 'What are you doing?' He called me an effin' bitch and punched me."

He also grabbed her by the back of her hair and pulled on it like someone trying to start a lawn mower, Pretti said.

The man was 45-50 years old and weighed about 250 pounds.

"I got up and started screaming, 'Don't touch me!'" Pretti said.

Pretti also admitted that she spit in his face.

The incident occurred while the bus was stopped near a 7-Eleven.

"One of the passengers booted the man out the door and the passengers told the bus driver, 'Let's go! Drive!'" said Pretti, who was bleeding and went to the bus driver to ask him what to do. "The bus driver told me to call 311, so I got off the bus at the Safeway (near Goulet) and ran in hysterically yelling, 'Call 311, call 311!'

"One of the women in the Safeway asked me what happened and said, 'You've got be kidding, call 911, not 311.' But the driver did tell me to call 311. Then, I waited there for three hours for the police to arrive."

The police apologized for being late, took her statement, the description of the man and told Pretti that they would get the bus surveillance footage.

"But, as far as I know, this guy's still out there," Pretti said. "One of the women on the bus said she sees him on that bus all the time and she thinks he's schizophrenic. So, now I'm going to have to take a different route to work because I don't want to see that man again."

A doctor told Pretti she suffered a concussion.

Coun. Matt Allard recently submitted a motion for the Winnipeg Police Board to consider putting plain-clothes officers on buses for security reasons and Pretti fully endorsed the idea.

"People need to feel safe on buses, and this could happen to someone else," she said.

jim.bender@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @bendersun