The director of the Public Transportation Board has called for harsh treatment for "hooligans'' who throw bricks and bottles at public buses.

Mr. Herman Basden's appeal follows an incident on Tuesday in which a female passenger was "showered with glass'' after a beer bottle smashed a side window.

The woman was not injured in the Somerset incident shortly after 9.30 p.m.

Mr. Basden said it was not the first such incident recently, though "I think we're past the worst period''.

That was Hallowe'en, when buses were actually taken off the road for one night because of vandalism concerns.

"These vicious, unprovoked attacks on buses and the public, in my view, have to be dealt with severely,'' Mr. Basden said.

"I don't think there is anything more disturbing than to be in a state of mind that is relatively tranquil and to find yourself disturbed because some coward or hooligan is hiding behind some bush, trying to throw a bottle at a bus.

"One of these days they are going to do some terrible damage to someone, and the perpetrators will fully appreciate their folly.'' Mr. Basden would not say what sentence was appropriate, but when innocent people were being attacked, "there should be minimal considerations given to the welfare of the attacker'', he said.

While no arrests have been made in the most recent case, Mr. Basden said he was pleased Police with the help of bus drivers were having good success in apprehending people who throw missiles at buses.

When schoolboys were caught damaging a bus, they were not necessarily dealt with harshly by the courts, but the boy's parents had to pay for the broken window and the boy had to do some work at the PTB.

"I suspect that the one that was throwing the bottle last night with the force to break one of these windows was definitely an adult,'' Mr. Basden said.

New Year's Eve was another problem time for vandalism, but Mr. Basden said he was confident the buses would be on the road that night.

Tuesday's hurling of a beer bottle at a bus closely followed a similar attack on a cyclist on the same stretch of road.

"A 26-year-old Sandys man was riding his motor cycle along Malabar Road near its junction with Kitchener Close around 9.30 p.m. when someone threw a brick,'' Police said yesterday. "The rider was hit on the body and despite being doubled up with abdominal pain managed to maintain control of his cycle and ride to Somerset Police Station.

"The injured party was taken to King Edward Hospital with bruising and released after treatment.'' And at 8 p.m. on Kitchener Road in Sandys, a 19-year-old restaurant worker said he was grabbed by three youths after delivering food to a residence. They tried to search his pockets but fled after a brief struggle.

Police are "considering the possibility the three incidents may be connected'', said Police Insp. Roseanda Jones.