Terror at the wheel: the driver, assaulted by two minors, is shocked: "I looked death in the face."
Lucca, November 8, 2025 – It all happened Thursday morning, at 6:50, in the historic center of Lucca, in Piazzale Verdi, where the bus station is located. The victim is Anuta Atomei , 47, a bus driver for ten years. She was alone in her seat with the vehicle still empty. Two minors , around 17, foreigners, showed up, visibly tipsy; they wanted to get on while drinking from bottles of wine they were holding. The driver told them to leave them on the ground, and from there all hell broke loose . She tried to lock them out, but they threw stones, managed to break the glass of the bus door , and climbed on board. Insults, spit in her face, and threats were thrown at her. The armored cabin that the new Autolinee Toscane vehicles are equipped with prevented the worst from happening. They tried, pulling her by the hair, but were unable to free her. They tried to slap her, but she managed to avoid it. Then that sentence: " If we were in Tunisia, we would have already cut off your head ." The driver manages to call the police station, and the police are there in a flash. Thanks in part to a video captured by a passerby, the two are identified and arrested. It turns out they had stabbed a man a year ago, in the Massa Pisana area: the man had urged them to stop vandalizing his fence. He survived, but the two have been free since last April.
How do you feel the day after the attack?
"I haven't slept a wink all night. I feel worse than yesterday (Thursday for those reading this, ed. ), because I realize clearly what happened and I relive those terrible moments. And I'm scared, I fear the revenge of those two ferocious beasts. I've looked death in the face."
Can you explain how it all started?
"I was in Piazzale Verdi, in the center of Lucca, a few minutes before 7:00 a.m. No one had gotten on the bus. These two guys showed up, speaking poor Italian. They asked me if I was going to Pontetetto, I said yes, but that I couldn't let them on with open bottles of wine in their hands. In an instant, they went berserk, and I fell into hell."
Did they threaten her?
"They told me everything, the mean look, even that if we had been in Tunisia they would have already cut off my head. But they stepped back and I took advantage of it to close the bus doors."
And at that point?
"They pelted the vehicle with bottles, tried to break the door, and then threw rocks, breaking the glass. So they forced their way in and climbed in. I was in total panic."
Had he managed to call for help?
“Yes, and when they saw I was calling, they got even more angry. It was an eternity, I didn't know what to do, I started honking the horn.”
And they were on board with her completely alone?
"The armored cabin that almost completely protects the driver's seat in the new Autolinee Toscane vehicles saved me. But they managed to get their hands in and grab me by the hair, they wanted to pull me out. They insulted me, threatened me, spat on me several times. They tried to slap me. Then the police arrived. I have never seen such cruelty in my life."
She ended up in the hospital.
"I had palpitations and high blood pressure. The report is ten days old. I'll have to undergo psychological recovery."
Are you scared?
"Yes. I'm barricaded in my house, I fear revenge, they're capable of anything."
What do you feel like saying?
"We're a targeted group; there's no colleague who hasn't experienced similar incidents, though fortunately not always so serious. We're the ones who take our children to school, the elderly to the hospital. Yet our work now involves risk. We're not there. The institutions must understand the problem and do something. These two have already stabbed a man, and once they were released, a few months later, one of them attacked a colleague of mine. And today this."
Demoralized?
"Yes, of course. It's disheartening to think that they're free to do evil again. What would it take to stop them, that they'd do something worse than this? Those two would certainly be capable of it."
La Nazione
