Screaming

A pregnant mother says she was forced to get off a bus because the driver was disturbed by her toddler's behaviour. Sharon Tracey, 35, said she was told by the driver to keep her two-year-old son Brandon quiet on the number 62 in Plymouth, Devon

This was the story on Plymothian Transit back on the 20th June
As I said at the time:
These sort of stories often appear in the local papers as bus companies seem to be soft targets. At least these days with cctv the stories can often be checked and quite often be disproved altogether. Look back through Leon Daniels blog to see a couple of high profile news stories where accusations were made which ended up in the national news only to be completely debunked later. By then the damage has been done as the follow up rarely gets the same attention in the news.

Sure enough on the 24th June we get...
Plymouth CityBus said it had used CCTV footage to establish what happened and managing director Andrew Wickham said she was not forced to step off.
CityBus said that after its investigation it was confident the driver did not ask her to leave the bus. Mr Wickham said: "The lady chose to leave. The bus driver did not tell her to leave the bus."
It is good to see the company taking the time to investigate fully and then come out supporting their driver. The passenger for her part clearly feels she was forced off the bus even if that force wasn't quite as forceful as originally claimed. At least that’s how I see her final line in the BBC story:
Mrs Tracey said she was told she would be forced to get off despite her best attempts to keep him quiet. She said: "Twice he said that to me. "I said 'Right, OK, I'll get off the bus,' because he made me feel so stupid in front of everybody that what else are you meant to do?
Clearly in a story like this there are no winners. Citybus have had bad publicity which has been reported across the country. The driver has had to wait to be cleared by Citybus of the accusation. The passenger clearly has not had a good experience from all of this and is hardly a fan of the company now.
The story went national, but you can be sure that the rebuttal of the story by Citybus wont get reported on anything like the same scale.
There was however a nice little article on The Telegraph web site which begins...
Fancy a job fraught with moral conundrums and opportunities to become a public hate figure? Forget becoming Prime Minister or Archbishop of Canterbury – try driving a bus. Job perks include a smart uniform, generous benefits, and the chance to have your actions splashed all over the media every time you offend a parent

Green Baby image by Putland (cc)

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PTOTPA: Weymouth rally 2010
Omnibuses: Ashamed Why cant bus companies make decent profits?
PTOTPA: Hot off the press His photo (and mine too) on Western Greyhound timetables
Uncle Terry: 136- on top of the tree
Uncle Terry: 137 What a load of rubbish
Omnibuses: If you know of any cuts...
TGP Projects: Take your Pick
TGP Dads Daily: Weathered Glass

Twitter / Facebook 27 June 2010

Just like to wish England Good Luck for this afternoon game against Germany (this was before the match!)