Brisbane bus driver takes it out on wheelchair kid

Brisbane bus (file photo).

I encountered another one of Brisbane's infamous dodgy bus drivers today. When I arrived at the RCH Herston bus stop to catch the 333 bus to the city there was a large group of people waiting at the bus stop who appeared to be members of an extended family. A cute little boy in a wheelchair and enough brothers and sisters or cousins, aunts and uncles to fill a minibus of their own. They took up two entire bench seats up one end of the bus station, while I traipsed down the other end to see when the next bus was coming.

When the bus arrived it appeared as if the driver didn't want to stop. He hugged the far lane and was tailgating the bus in front of him (which no-one wanted to catch) as if he hoped that anyone hailing the bus could be mistaken for hailing the first bus and he could keep going. I hailed the bus, as did the little kid in the wheelchair and one of the 3 other people waiting at the stop who didn't belong to the family. The driver realised he had to pull in and swerved tightly into the correct lane and stopped down the end of the station where I was waiting along with the 3 others. The family of the little boy got to their feet and started walking towards the bus.

I suppose I must have had some inkling of what was about to happen, because I deliberately dwardled while walking to the bus, thinking it would give the family some time to mobilise. When I showed him my ticket I pointed in their direction and said "You've got a heap more passengers coming on". The driver didn't react or say anything, and to my surprise the bus started moving as I put away my ticket before I even took a step down the aisle to find a seat, leaving the kid in the wheelchair and his family behind at the stop.

I went and found a seat, a bit puzzled by the driver's behaviour. Had he not heard what I said? Had he not seen the fifteen or so people making their way toward the open door of the bus? I felt pretty bad for the people stuck at the bus stop for another 15-20 minutes waiting for the next 333. But my suspicions about the driver just being an arsehole were confirmed when we arrived at the QUT stop and as soon as the first couple of people had got on the bus he yelled at them to move up the back. So he was just a nasty grouch.

Sure, he probably wasn't having a good day- the 333 had been diverted from its normal route due to road works, and maybe his wife left him or he woke up on the wrong side of bed after a really bad sleep. But leaving a kid in a wheelchair at a bus stop is pretty low.