TTC defends driver after woman screams to be let off bus
Posted May 13, 2013 6:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The TTC is standing behind one of its drivers after a video was posted on YouTube on Monday of a female passenger not being allowed to exit the back doors of a bus.
The incident took place on Saturday while a section of the Yonge subway line was shut down. Shuttle buses were running along Yonge Street from Union to Bloor stations, causing heavy traffic.
During the three-minute and 47 second video the woman yells repeatedly at the bus driver to let her off the packed bus, which is stopped at the intersection of Yonge and Maitland streets, because she’s going to be ill.
Throughout the incident the driver refuses to open the back door but calmly tells the woman to exit the crowded bus through the front entrance.
WARNING: Video contains explicit language
TTC spokesperson Brad Ross told CityNews the driver did nothing wrong.
“It would be unsafe, in the operators’ perspective,” Ross explained. “He would be opening the door in what would essentially be a T-intersection and that would be unsafe.”
Ross said had the driver let the woman off the bus in the middle of the intersection there was potential for her, or other customers, to get hit by a cyclist or another vehicle.
“Once he pulls the bus forward (out of the intersection) he’s able to let her and all the other passengers who wanted to get off the bus, off the bus,” he said. “He’s putting the safety of this customer and other customers before anything else.”
Ross said drivers need to make decisions based on safety and proper operation of a TTC bus.
TTC CEO Andy Byford told CityNews he will be looking into the incident.
No formal investigation into the matter has been announced.
