LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Calling the safety of its riders its “unwavering mission,” the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada added 300 new security officers to its transit system Monday. Of those officers, 50 will ride the buses throughout Las Vegas, RTC said.
Recent violence on RTC bus lines is well documented. The 8 News Now Investigators have shed light on numerous instances of gunfire and other lethal behavior. Among them, a 30-year-old man aboard a bus in February 2023 was stabbed 33 times and the bus finally pulled over after four long minutes; a woman, 28, was sentenced in February 2022 to 20 years for pushing a man, 74, off a bus to his death in 2019 ; and in June teenagers engaged in a shootout that riddled the bus in bullets and left its passengers ducking for cover .
Those examples, while vivid, are not constant given the breadth and scope of the RTC’s operation. In Fiscal Year 2022, the RTC provided nearly 41 million bus rides. Still, an RTC director stressed – in a written statement to the 8 News Now Investigators – the importance of the investment in added security.