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Do I hear death threats :Bringiton:
OTTAWA — Passengers aboard an OC Transpo bus were outraged Wednesday when a driver refused to stop and let a mother off a bus that had left her young girl behind in the city’s west end.Jennifer Todd was aboard the route 94 bus at around 4:30 p.m. when it was travelling southbound along the transitway towards Fallowfield.
She said the doors to the bus closed once the girl, who appeared to be about six-years-old, got off at the stop at Iris Street. That separated her from the woman who looked to be her mother, as she was unable to make her way through the crowded bus to get to the exit in time.Passengers tried to get the driver to stop and let the woman off when they realized what happened a few hundred yards away from the station, said Todd.He refused.
“That scared the absolute hell out of me,” she said. “You don’t drop off a six-year-old kid and then refuse to let the mother off. To me, that’s just wrong.”She was particularly worried because the area is a fairly quiet wooded area and it would have been easy for a stranger to come along and take her away, she said.
A spokesman for the City of Ottawa, Michael FitzPatrick, said Wednesday night he had no confirmed information that matched such an incident.Chelsey Donohue, who was sitting at the front of the bus, said the driver appeared to know what the situation was but looked as though he was “annoyed” that a man had made his way to the front to ask him to stop.“Everyone on the bus, you could tell they were mad about it, because the guy could have just stopped the bus and let her off,” she said.
“The bus driver wouldn’t compromise at all. He was like ‘no. She can wait,’ pretty much.”He then became “hostile” towards the passengers who were getting angry, she said.That part of the transitway has a paved shoulder and trees on either side.
That makes it different from other parts of the transitway, which have metal barriers to discourage people from entering the roadway on foot.“I could understand if there was no way to safely make her way back, I could maybe appreciate it, but she could have easily made her way back,” said Todd.
“I don’t understand why he didn’t stop. At all.”Todd used her cell phone to call the police once it became clear the woman wasn’t going to be able to get off.Const. Henri Lanctôt of Ottawa police would only say they were looking into a matter involving an OC Transpo bus and a young girl in that area immediately after the incident took place.
Police later reported, at around 6:30 p.m., they had located the girl safe and sound.The woman eventually disembarked a number of minutes later at the next stop at Baseline Road.Todd said she had yet to file a complaint with OC Transpo because the incident took place after business hours, but said she planned to do so Thursday.
She said the doors to the bus closed once the girl, who appeared to be about six-years-old, got off at the stop at Iris Street. That separated her from the woman who looked to be her mother, as she was unable to make her way through the crowded bus to get to the exit in time.Passengers tried to get the driver to stop and let the woman off when they realized what happened a few hundred yards away from the station, said Todd.He refused.
“That scared the absolute hell out of me,” she said. “You don’t drop off a six-year-old kid and then refuse to let the mother off. To me, that’s just wrong.”She was particularly worried because the area is a fairly quiet wooded area and it would have been easy for a stranger to come along and take her away, she said.
A spokesman for the City of Ottawa, Michael FitzPatrick, said Wednesday night he had no confirmed information that matched such an incident.Chelsey Donohue, who was sitting at the front of the bus, said the driver appeared to know what the situation was but looked as though he was “annoyed” that a man had made his way to the front to ask him to stop.“Everyone on the bus, you could tell they were mad about it, because the guy could have just stopped the bus and let her off,” she said.
“The bus driver wouldn’t compromise at all. He was like ‘no. She can wait,’ pretty much.”He then became “hostile” towards the passengers who were getting angry, she said.That part of the transitway has a paved shoulder and trees on either side.
That makes it different from other parts of the transitway, which have metal barriers to discourage people from entering the roadway on foot.“I could understand if there was no way to safely make her way back, I could maybe appreciate it, but she could have easily made her way back,” said Todd.
“I don’t understand why he didn’t stop. At all.”Todd used her cell phone to call the police once it became clear the woman wasn’t going to be able to get off.Const. Henri Lanctôt of Ottawa police would only say they were looking into a matter involving an OC Transpo bus and a young girl in that area immediately after the incident took place.
Police later reported, at around 6:30 p.m., they had located the girl safe and sound.The woman eventually disembarked a number of minutes later at the next stop at Baseline Road.Todd said she had yet to file a complaint with OC Transpo because the incident took place after business hours, but said she planned to do so Thursday.
