Some interesting lessons from A Current Affair

Another media story about a racist passenger on a Sydney bus has again highlighted the challenges bus drivers face every day.

Last night Channel Nine’s A Current Affair program ran a story about a female passenger who racially abused other passengers on the M41.

According to the report the driver stopped the bus twice, telling the passengers to calm down.

Watch the ACA story here.

The story shows how hard the driver’s lot can be – do they intervene in a dispute and risk themselves and other passengers by inflaming a situation, or do they focus on driving and be blamed for inaction?

Here at Bus Express, we think the driver handled the situation perfectly. He calmed the situation while finding out where the abusive passenger was getting off, while avoiding inflaming the situation further.

It’s hard for drivers to know exactly what to do in every situation but one thing is for certain, it’s not a driver’s job to be security guard or police officer.

Another definite lesson for all of us is that, with smartphone technology, drivers can depend on their every move being filmed or photographed by passengers, whether for good or for ill.