Misery on the buses for the blind

This article is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Misery on the buses for the blind

Rude and unhelpful bus drivers are causing misery for blind and visually impaired people, according to a survey.

Hundreds of people reported problems with bus services in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland as they responded to a survey carried out by Leicester charity Vista, which helps those with sight loss.

Many described particularly bad experiences of drivers failing to stop to let them on board or even verbally abusing them.

Hazel Mayles, of Coalville, reported an instance of having the door shut on one bus while her guide dog was on board but she was not.

She said: "I was left alone, disorientated and holding the lead. If I hadn't have let go of the lead I would have been pulled under the bus.

"I went back a few days later only to find the same bus driver driving past hurling a load of abuse at me.

"Since this I have been afraid to use any bus services."

This was the first survey carried out by Vista into public services, such as transport.

Some 43 per cent of the 2,800 respondents reported problems with bus services.

A woman from Scraptoft, who did not want to be named, described how what should have been a 30-minute journey to Kibworth took more than two hours when buses refused to stop for her.

Sue Allen, sensory impairment trainer at Vista, commissioned the survey.

She said: "It's a pretty big problem and there are a lot of different problems too."It takes long enough for visually impaired people to get from A to B without buses not stopping for them, so it's not very good at all. Once someone's confidence in using public transport is shot it takes a lot of work to get them to do that kind of thing again.

"It only takes one incident to have that effect – it's just absolutely appalling."In her role, Sue said she had rarely had a positive experience of taking a blind person on a bus.

She has contacted numerous companies including Arriva and Centrebus, but says she has had no response.

She added: "The way to go is for us to get bus companies to train their staff."

David Shelley, commercial director at Centrebus, said he was personally unaware of any contact from Vista.

He said: "We provide good training for our drivers and I've not seen anything relating to blind people with regards to the conduct of our staff.

"I absolutely insist all customers' comments come into my office and are reported by myself to our board of directors on a monthly basis."

An Arriva spokesman said: "Our drivers are trained to look for signals from passengers, however they also receive extensive training for passengers with disabilities using our services.

"If there are incidents we would like to know so we can investigate further."