Obscenity on the buses

John Frier with his letter of complaint to First bus company

Abusive driver is taken off the road
A FEMALE bus driver has been taken off the road after making an obscene gesture to a Royton passenger on crutches.

John Frier (54), from Angela Avenue, who has struggled to walk unaided following a road accident in June last year when he broke his leg, his arm and dislocated his shoulder, said the driver called him a scrounger and put her middle finger up at him.

The incident, which was caught on the bus’s CCTV cameras, happened as Mr Frier left the 409 bus at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

He had boarded it at Ashton Bus Station and sat down on the fold down seat in the disabled space to stretch out his injured right leg, and a woman with a pram then sat next to him.

When a second mother pushed her buggy on, Mr Frier claims the female bus driver shouted to him, “Oi, you with the crutch, you’ve got to move.”

He said: “When I asked why, she said I just had to.”

Mr Frier, a production supervisor, moved to the only available seat on the packed bus situated behind the staircase and spent the next 40 minutes in agony as he was forced to bend his leg.

When leaving the bus at the Royal Oldham Hospital stop, he asked the driver for her name and company number but she refused.

Mr Frier said: “I turned my back to get off the bus and she said, ‘Get a job, you scrounger’.

“I turned back to her and told her she was a disgrace, and then she put her middle finger up at me.

“When I got off the bus, she shut the doors and then put her finger up again.”

Mr Frier said he was was left shocked and stunned.

He said: “I’ve worked for 36 years until the accident and I can’t believe the way I was treated.

“She could see I had a crutch.

“Since the accident, public transport has been my only way of getting around but the whole episode has really put me off.

“A few weeks ago, I was on another First bus when two mums boarded but that time the driver told one of them to put their buggy down.

“An apology from the female driver wouldn’t go amiss.”

Mr Frier has submitted a formal complaint to the company about the incident, which happened on November 16.

A First spokesman said the employee has been taken off driving duties for now.

He said: “We have carried out a full investigation into this matter, which has included viewing CCTV footage of the incident from our on-board cameras.

“The CCTV footage clearly shows the allegation of a rude gesture being made by our driver to be true.

“Our driver has been taken off the road and we do not tolerate this type of behaviour from one of our staff members.

“We would like to apologise to Mr Frier and we will be writing to him in the near future to offer further apologies.”