Article: Girl, 10, left on kerb over $1.20 bus fare

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Girl, 10, left on kerb over $1.20 bus fare

Girl, 10, left on kerb over $1.20 bus fare
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Ursula Heger

August 31, 2009 12:00am

A 10-YEAR-old girl was left by the side of a busy road in Mt Gravatt last month after she didn't have enough money for the bus, it has been revealed.

The girl's mother told The Courier-Mail her daughter was directed to get off the 174 bus on Newnham Rd in late July after her Go Card had insufficient credit and she did not have enough change.

But Brisbane City Council yesterday denied the girl was told to leave, saying she was only told she had insufficient credit on her Go Card.

The case breached the strict "no child left behind" policy employed by TransLink and Brisbane City Council, which states that a child cannot be left behind by a bus regardless of whether they have sufficient money for the trip.

The child's mother, who asked not to be named, said she was "horrified" and "disgusted" that her daughter, who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was left behind by the bus.

"She told me she was still at school and 'the driver told me to get off the bus'," the mother said.

"She said: 'My bus card wouldn't work, and I looked in my bag and I didn't have enough change, and then the bus driver just said, 'Get off the bus'."

The girl's mother said she called a TransLink operator, who said the decision to leave her child behind was "up to the driver's discretion".

"When I rang the first time the man said to me: 'Well, it is up to the driver's discretion'.

"I said you cannot leave a child behind for the sake of $1.20 - along that road, it is a busy road, anyone could have stopped and grabbed her."

The mother later contacted TransLink again and was given an apology for the incident.

The case is among four across the southeast that were investigated by TransLink this year, including one at Caboolture and one near Ipswich.

A TransLink spokesman said the driver and the call centre operator had been disciplined.

"TransLink's policy is that no child will be left at a bus stop under any circumstances and takes matters where a child is left at a bus stop very seriously," the spokesman said.

[ButFli]

Looks like it's free trips for kids from now on.

[WTN]

Looks like it's free trips for kids from now on.

Not if they're accompanied by an adult.  It's not the child's fault if the carer can't afford the child's fare, and the child won't get left unattended because both could be refused boarding.  I think the rules only affect unaccompanied children.

[ButFli]

Looks like it's free trips for kids from now on.

Not if they're accompanied by an adult.  It's not the child's fault if the carer can't afford the child's fare, and the child won't get left unattended because both could be refused boarding.  I think the rules only affect unaccompanied children.

"Hey, that kid's not with me, but you better let him on because it's the rules."

[WTN]

Sounds like irresponsible parenting.  What if the kid goes out of control and drives all the passengers mad?  I've seen parents hushing kids like that before on buses.