January 20, 2010
By Amanda Yong from The New Paper, 19 January
2010
For almost five hours, a family of four and a maid sat inside
the bus, refusing to alight from the stationary vehicle. They
insited on staying pu as they had paid their fares. At the same
time, the driver refused to move off.
The reason for the stalemate: His bus was not wheel-chair
accessible, but the group insisted on boarding with a wheelchair.
As a result, the driver parked the vehicle at the side of the road.
The other passengers had to alight and wait at the bus stop for
another bus to come along.
During the long and heated stand-off at Mandai Road on Sunday,
accusations were hurled and tears were shed.
The police were called in to calm the situation, but even their
presence did not end the stand-off.
And all teh while, a frail 90 year old grandmother – part of the
family – sprawled on a seat at the back of the bus, exhausted by
the wait.
A Chinese national couple from Beijing were among the five who
had gone to the Mandai Columbarium that morning.
The wife, Madam Lin, 48, who works in the media industry, said
they went there to pay their respects to her husband’s late
uncle. The visit to the old man’s niche was the reason they
were in Singapore.
Accompanying them were the late uncle’s 90-year-old widow and
her daughter-both Singaporeans and a maid. They took a wheelchair
with them in case the old woman needed it.
Although she can walk without support, she had a stroke a month
ago and they were worried about her condition, Madam Lin said.
She claimed they had no problems boarding a bus in Bedok, with
the wheelchair, to head to Mandai in the mornin. But their return
journey – supposedly on the same SBS bus service 138 – was a
different story.
When they tried to board it at a bus stop on Mandai Road around
12.40pm, they were refused entry. The driver said wheelchairs were
not allowed on the bus as it was not wheelchair-accessible.
Madam Lin claimed the driver noticed the folded wheelchair they
were carrying only after they had paid their fares.
“I was very surprised because there were no signs on the
exterior and interior of the bus that said wheelchairs are not
allowed on the bus,” she told Shin Min Daily News. So she and the
others refused to budge.
The driver informed his office about the situation and stopped
the bus by the roadside. The other passengers – about 10 of them –
were told to alight and wait for the next bus.
Madam Lin and her family members sat at the rear of the bus and
insisted on staying put.
Unable to resolve the matter, the bus driver called the police.
More than five police officers took turns to calm the situation,
Shin Min Daily News reported.
But Madam Lin and her family could not be persuaded. Instead,
they stood their ground, speaking in loud and agitated voices.
When contacted yesterday, a police spokesman confirmed that they
received a call at 1.30m about a dispute along Mandai Road.
From the back of the bus, they chanted repeatedly to the
policement: “We want to go home! We haven’t had lunch and haven’t
been able to go to the toilet. Now we don’t have any transport to
go back home. What are we supposed to do?”
During the stand-off, emotions were so over-wrought that the
widow’s daughter broke down in tears. The old woman, who looked
weak, pale and tired, lay helplessly on a bus seat.
Asked why they did not hail a taxi to go home since the elderly
aunt was not well, Madam Lin said they were not the ones in the
wrong. Moreover, she added, it would have been difficult to get a
cab as the area they were in was quite deserted.
That was why they kept asking the bus company to get them a
taxi, Madam Lin said.
She also told Shin Min Daily News that they were not willing to
pay the taxi fare and that she had hoped the police officers would
take them home in a police car.
The bus driver, who wanted to be known only as Mr Chen, 48, said
he had tried to explain to the group that he could not allow them
on the bus with the wheelchair for safety reasons.
But they still tapped their ez-link cards on the card reader. Mr
Chen then informed his company headquarters about the matter and
was told to stop the bus.
The stand-off ended some time after 5pm when SBS Transit
arranged for a maxi cab to take the gruop home without charge.
Read rest of article on The New Paper.