Bus driver told mum she was scum (From Stroud News and Journal)

Bus driver told mum she was scum

A BUSDRIVER allegedly told a young mum all Stroud people were scum after she criticised him for throwing a cigarette butt in her face.

Clare Hatherall complained to the Stagecoach driver after she said he threw a burning butt of a cigarette in her direction without looking as she walked through Stroud bus station.

"It went straight past my eyes," said Mrs Hatherall. "I was carrying my seven-month-old baby and it could have hit either of us."

Mrs Hatherall said she challenged the driver and demanded an apology.

"I was really upset but he said because it didn't hit me it wasn't a problem.

"I'm not a small person, he can't have missed me, I'm the size of the side of a bus myself," she said.

"When I demanded to speak to the supervisor he walked away into the canteen and I followed him to find I was surrounded by bus drivers.

"The driver who had thrown the cigarette told me I was a very small, insignificant person. Then he told me Stroud people were obnoxious and they are all scum. They were all laughing at me. Mrs Hatherall said she found the incident very upsetting.

"They were all shouting at me and I feel really badly treated," she said.

"I was extremely intimidated and nobody would take responsibility."

Phil Stockley, commercial manager for Stagecoach Gloucestershire told the SNJ he expected drivers to behave courteously.

"First of all we wouldn't expect it to happen in the first place. "But if it did, we would expect the driver to be courteous and apologise.

"If a complaint was made we would follow it up with the individual concerned.

"Our expectations are that our staff behave properly at all times. "But despite our clear and very high expectations we do know that with a workforce of 500 in Gloucestershire that there are occasions when things don't always go as we would hope."

He said in these cases members of the public should make a formal complaint which would be properly dealt with.