Ewell Village disabled woman left to wait in the cold by two bus drivers

Sarah Lambert, 31, from Ewell Village, tried to get a 293 bus from the Green Man Pub stop in Ewell towards Morden, but two bus drivers refused to pick her up, the second one claiming she couldn’t get on because there was a baby buggy on board.

Miss Lambert, who lost the use of her legs due to health complications following a fall three years ago, was left in floods of tears at the bus stop.

But good Samaritan, Michael Harris, who was travelling on the second bus, got off at the next stop, walked back and helped ensure she the next one let her on.

She said: “I had gone to the kerb and flagged the bus down. He saw me waiting at the back door he didn’t open it. When the following bus came, I went to the front door and I said ‘please, may I get on your bus?’ and he said I couldn’t. The bus was practically empty.”

Miss Lambert, who used to be a bus driver herself and served in the territorial army, said she had never had this problem before.

She said: “I usually get on buses and go everywhere and this never happens. I was so angry and upset, and I couldn’t understand how both drivers could leave me there in the cold, when I can’t warm my feet.

“I’m in poor health at the moment and feeling quite upset after some of my TA comrades died out there in the war. I was left completely shaken and depressed after this.”

A spokeswoman for Metrobus, which runs the 293 service, said: “We have since confirmed with the driver that he did not know she wished to board, and in fact he believes he carried her on his bus later that day on her return journey. He wishes to apologise to her for the misunderstanding.”

About the second bus driver, she said: “The correct procedure in this circumstance is to ask the pushchair owner to fold it up so that the wheelchair user can be boarded.

“This is to be investigated with the driver concerned on his next working day, and if he did wrong, we apologise to the lady for this failure.”