You’re not disabled enough, Bradford bus driver tells frail pensioner on crutches

Christine Watson, 62, who suffers from osteoarthritis and walks with the aid of a crutch, said the “over-zealous” driver ordered her off his vehicle, telling her – wrongly – that her disabled pass was not valid.

The mother-of-four was left in tears as she struggled to walk the half-mile journey.

Mrs Watson, who was on the way to see her elderly mother, was left humiliated after the driver told her to remove herself from the “****ing bus”.

Company chief at bus company First have apologised to Mrs Watson over the incident.

Mrs Watson and the driver argued before she was asked to either pay the £2.40 fare, hand over her pass or get off the bus.

She got off the 670 First bus service three stops early and had to walk for 35 minutes, despite having suffered from osteoarthritis in both knees for the last seven years.

The former cleaner from Thorpe Edge in Bradford, said: “I felt distraught and humiliated when he told me to get off the bus, there were people on it who know me from the bus and must have been wondering what I had done.

“I always have at least one crutch with me and sometimes two, depending how I feel in the morning, and he would have seen me get on with it and definitely seen it when he threw me off.

“I had got on the bus with my granddaughter Demi, who is 12. We had gone three stops and she got off.

“The bus driver was about to start the bus but then he stopped and said, ‘Oi, I want you’.”

Mrs Watson was then told that her disabled pass was only valid if she was travelling with someone else – despite the fact that she had been travelling on it daily for four years – and was asked for her bus fare.

“He held out his hand and said, I want that pass now but I said ‘I’m not that daft, you won’t give it back to me’.

“Then he said, ‘Please remove your body off this ***ing bus’, he was acting very clever like he knew everything.

“I told my son who has worked on the buses for 18 years and he was really angry; he said I can use my pass to travel on my own.”

Mrs Watson was left tearful and shocked by the driver’s behaviour and is now frightened to use the service in case she meets the same driver.

She added: “I was humiliated and had to get off the bus and walk to my mum’s. All the time I was crying and I couldn’t eat.

“I am going to try the bus again but the thought of it is making me more nervous, in case he is driving again and I am going to be humiliated again.

“My daughter has had to come over from her house to get on the bus with me.”

Since the incident last Friday Mrs Watson has been getting taxis for her regular journey to see her 84-year-old mother.

She is worried that another bus trip will end in public humiliation.

“I know a lot of people on that bus and it’s not nice being shown up like that. The driver said I was committing fraud and he swore at me.”

Her daughter, Donna Watson, 31, said she found the whole situation disgusting.

“I think the bus company should give something to my mum, they just said that they are sorry it has happened and the driver has been dealt with.

“She has been really dreading getting on the bus since then and she can’t afford to keep getting taxis.”

Bus company First has admitted its driver was “over-zealous” in challenging Mrs Watson about the validity of her ticket and said all of its drivers would be spoken to so it would not happen again.

A First spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to Mrs Watson for this unfortunate incident.”

Abuse claims that hit the headlines

COMPLAINTS about rude bus drivers have hit the headlines over the years.

In 2008 a Goth couple alleged that a driver had verbally abused them as they tried to board a bus in Dewsbury.

Tasha Maltby, who was wearing a dog lead around her neck which boyfriend Dani Graves was holding, claimed a driver told them: “We don’t let freaks and dogs like you on.”

Occasionally the job pressures end in violence.

In March this year a London bus driver punched and butted a passenger who complained when he did not pull up at his stop.

On the flip side, many drivers from across the UK have won awards for customer service.