Our Bus Drivers Need Protection Against Unreasonable Passengers

On 12 June around 9pm, I was on bus 133 on my way home when an incident involving an unreasonable passenger and the bus driver took place.

The bus driver was focusing on his right rear mirror, trying to filter out from a bus stop to the main road, when an unreasonable passenger came banging on the bus front door. I observed the passenger was holding a laptop in one hand and a handphone in the other.

I list 2 reasons as to why the bus driver should not be blamed even if the passenger was missed and end up not able to board the bus. The pasenger should even be thankful if he managed to board it. My first reason is the passenger was too late in flagging the bus and the bus driver should not be blamed. Secondly, the bus driver never noticed the passenger's intention in boarding it simply due to the first reason plus the bus driver was looking at the right rear mirror that time. The unreasonable passenger simply took his own sweet time strolling towards the bus.

The well dressed long sleeved in early twenties passenger raised his voice at the bus driver and even threatened to lodge a complaint. There were these two other passengers who felt the bus driver was wrongly accused. They told the bus driver to f**k him and even called the unreasonable passenger names. The two passengers alighted at the next stop. It was at this moment when I decided to do something. I took out a piece of paper and wrote my contact number on it before passing it to the driver. I told him to contact me should he require a witness. He thanked me.

In my opinion, the bus driver was not at fault and certainly does not deserve a treatment like this. We should not have the "Customers are always right" attitude.