WE’RE all at risk of running into some of society’s scarier people sometimes.

But this is especially true of employees in what the jargon calls “customer-facing” jobs – the hard-working staff who never know whether the next person they meet will be someone troubled, abusive or even violent.

Bus drivers certainly have to deal with more than their fair share of abuse – and to deal with it alone while remaining in control of several tonnes of motorised vehicle. They can find themselves harangued for traffic hold-ups, route changes or the fact that they can’t change a £20 note.

Fortunately, most of the hostility they deal with is the verbal kind. But as today’s Daily Echo reports, physical attacks can happen too. If we don’t want our drivers to be completely enclosed behind artificial glass, with machines taking the fares and giving no change, we have to hope such incidents remain a rarity.