Local bus driver claims he was assaulted after the Donald Trump rally in Coachella

A Coachella Valley bus driver is now speaking out after he claims to have been assaulted following the Donald Trump rally in Coachella.

He wanted to remain anonymous, over fears of retaliation, but the driver says what started out as a normal shift, quickly took a turn for the worse.

"At the beginning, everybody was really conforming to what they needed to do. But towards the end is when everything changed. They started pushing. They started shoving. They started, you know, throwing stuff," said the driver. "I think the overwhelming crowd of people even inundated the law enforcement. People were tire and hot, they probably didn't have a lot to eat, a lot of factors created this frustrating mess for attendees."

The event was hosted on Saturday at Calhoun Ranch, an outdoor venue in rural Coachella, with an estimated 15,000 attendees. Rally organizers with the Trump campaign used Coach USA, an LA based company, to contract out local drivers. They were originally hired to operate busses between 5:00 and 10:00 p.m.

"We were on the back end of the transportation, which started around five o'clock," explained the driver. "We were told that no more people were coming to back to the venue from the parking lots past two o'clock, but they didn't hold to that. So the crowds were starting to get bigger and bigger.”

According to the Trump campaign, at least 60 busses were arranged to transport attendees, however , hundreds of people claim they were stranded by the lack of transportation following the event.

"We couldn't get in to let people out, because the traffic was so stretched out," said the driver. "One of the problems was the transportation was going the same way the cars were going, so it slowed everybody down."

When the bus driver was finally able to pull into the venue, the driver says people became unruly.

"I heard a lady fall down and I went to go check on her at the back of the bus," claimed the driver. "I walked towards the back of the bus, and I got to the middle of the bus, and I had a slam or a slap against my left side of my face. I was nearly knocked down, and I came to my senses and realized my face was swelling up. My eye I couldn't see, and then my nose started bleeding heavily. I turned around and whoever hit me was already gone."

That's when he went back up to the front of the bus and found a tissue for his bloody nose. The driver, an Army Veteran, says his military training helped him manage the dangerous situation.

"I think my military training allowed me to refocus and get myself in a place of safety and get it called in so that no one else got hurt," said the bus driver.

After dropping his passengers off the driver was taken to the Eisenhower Emergency room for treatment.

"I ended up getting a CAT scan and they checked my eye for cornea scratch, for dislocation, and they checked for a concussion," said the driver. "I was there an extensive amount of time."

The driver now says he has to take extra time off work to recover fully, but he's lucky it wasn't worse.

"I guess I'm glad it was a hand and not a bat or a knife," said the driver.

As he reflected on Saturday's events, the driver believes things could have been done differently, and blames the attack on poor planning.

"They underestimated the quantity of people," said the driver. "All day, more people started coming in. So it added to the confusion, added to the frustration. And then when the rally was over, it was the perfect storm. You can't plan big events like this in just a few days."

Now, he hopes his story prevents future attendees from unleashing their anger on service workers.

"I know that they were feeling just so frustrated, and I empathize with that. We all felt that way," said the driver. "But we need to understand that you need to treat people who are service employees like human beings, instead of just targets. You can't just take your anger out on the first person you see. I just don't want to hear about anybody else getting hurt simply doing their job."

A viewer called News Channel Three and claimed that several Riverside County Sheriff's deputies also helped take stranded attendees home in their squad cars. News Channel Three did reach out to the department but we have not heard back to confirm those details.