Bus driver refused to make passenger leave

Obviously the other passengers were being twats. But I agree with those who say bus drivers are not paid to put themselves in danger by trying to lay down their law with potentially aggressive customers.

Same as how I saw Greggs employees completely ignore a shoplifter walking out with a load of food. At the time I was surprised but afterwards realised they are not well paid and definitely not required to put themselves at risk by challenging someone who could have a knife for example.

Sounds like the bus was full when you got on.
Wheelchair or not if the bus is full you wait for the next one.
This could have been avoided.

BTP would ensure if it is not them that they would tell you who it is.

A quick search showed four bus drivers a day are attacked in London, not sure what the UK picture is. Screens for the driver's protection predate Covid. No wonder not always willing to be involved.

Sorry this happened to you.

Although they're called British Transport Police, they police trains, not buses or the road network. Silly name really.

I agree. Just from other threads there seems to be a lot of these situations happening to OP.

Don't be ridiculous. Stuff like this happens to wheelchair user every time we leave the house.

This sounds too much of a one-sided story and I wonder what actually happened

Sorry this happened to you, OP. Was this in London? If so, you should definitely complain to TfL. My understanding is that there are special laws in London (not sure about the rest of the country) that mean wheelchair users take precedence and bus drivers are supposed to enforce this. It's mentioned on TfL's website in relation to buggies needing to move out of the wheelchair space. I've certainly been on buses where the driver has refused to move the bus on until space is cleared for the wheelchair user.

You could also report to BTP as the bus likely has CCTV and they may be able to look into it for you.

It is not the bus drivers fault they have no authority to do anything

Seriously ? A disabled person in a wheel chair cornered and abused ? The walking stick was an act of defence, bravery and completely warranted.

There is already a shortage of bus drivers, a lot of it due to the abuse they get. If they start getting involved in stuff like this then there will be even less of them soon. Sorry OP but your issue is not with the bus company but with society.

WTH, no one said anything or tried to help? On a bus full of people??
Assholes, the lot of them,including the sodding driver - leaving a disabled woman to stand up against an intimidating able bodied male.
Shocked at posters defending this behaviour and saying drivers should not get involved.

Actually the need to get the passengers, all of them other destination as SAFELY as possible. Time is not the priority.

Next time this happens to you (cos it will I'm sorry) phone the police. And I mean 999.

where i am the drivers don’t get involved with wheelchair spaces they open doors put down the ramp and that’s it they expect passengers to sort it out between themselves they don’t ask anyone to clear the space

@MobilityCat

I'm sorry he acted like that & you had no support. You must feel incredibly vulnerable in a wheelchair.

yes the driver should have cleared the disabled space for you, definitely.

He should have chucked the tosser off the bus, but so many of the get hurt in the process, I can see why he held back- they don't get danger money.

For your own safety, I'd avoid threatening to hurt people, though in my case they're likely to wet themselves laughing.

There’s a lot of crazy unhinged people out there. I don’t think bus drivers are paid enough to place themselves in the firing line and risk getting attacked. People who behave badly are very unlikely to take orders from the bus driver. The best thing the bus driver can do to avoid escalation is continue on his route to get all the passengers, including the badly behaved one, to their destinations as quickly as possible.

You could have (and should have) called the police. Bus drivers and tfl are not law enforcement, they don't deal with crime

As someone else has said, the driver's only real mechanism for enforcement is refusing to drive any further until whatever is supposed to happen does happen. That always works (eventually), it would have taken the onus off you to order the guy to do anything, the only person he can really get arsey with then is the driver for not moving, but he's behind a protective screen.

(If you're lucky some burly impatient men who need to be somewhere will throw the guy off anyway!)

But it sounds like your driver was useless.