This Is Why London Bus Drivers Are Too Afraid To Report Shocking Abuse
3 November 2017, 07:30 | Updated: 3 November 2017, 07:46
Hallam is a London bus driver and the threats and abuse he’s faced from some of his passengers is just utterly shocking.
Nearly nine in 10 bus drivers in the capital have been verbally abused in the last year, according to Unite.
The union also found one in eight have been spat at, with more than half of these incidents not being reported through fears it will not be investigated properly.
This is all too familiar for the LBC caller, whose story left Darren Adam stunned.
Speaking of one particularly appalling incident with a passenger, Hallam recalled: “He come right in my face and said ‘Come on, I’m going to stamp on you’.
“I said ‘what’s that for? I’ve just stopped the bus, let you cross the road and now you’re coming on to the bus and abusing me’.
“He goes ‘you’re lucky you’ve got a job in this country’.”
Hallam noted this wasn’t the first time it had happened, but said he was reluctant to report it because he didn’t think it would be taken seriously.
“If I was to report that to my manager,” the caller continued. “What are the going to do? They’re going to say ‘fill out a form’.
“It’s a very long form, two, three pages, that’s a waste of my time. And if I give it to them - what are they going to do?
"They’re going to go through the CCTV to see how am I driving, what’s my braking like, what’s my speed like.
“That makes me upset, instead of investigating abuse they’re going to look at my driving.”
Watch the call in full above.
