HIT a cab or bus driver and expect to spend four weeks behind bars.
And if you are drunk, make that no less than six months to a year.
An Appeals judge put offenders on notice that this would be the court's benchmark on such assaults in order to protect public transport workers.
An 'umistakable signal must be sent out that no such attacks will be tolerated,' said Justice V.K. Rajah in tripling the jail term of a passenger who had beaten a cab driver and stopped when the man collapsed.
In more severe cases the courts will 'not shy away from more draconian' jail terms.
Explaining why in his written judgement released on Tuesday, the judge said there was little doubt that 'public transport workers are more vulnerable to criminal violence than their counterparts in most other professions.
'They are constantly exposed on the service frontline and, very often, are left to fend for themselves when confronted with difficult and/or unruly passengers.'
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
