VANCOUVER – Burnaby resident Sashene Cooper is praising her bus driver for what she says was an act of compassion and kindness.
Cooper was on the 101 bus near the Burnaby-New Westminster border with her two daughters on Saturday evening when she noticed a girl talking on her phone. Cooper says she appeared to be a little upset after hanging up the phone and then moved to sit closer to the bus driver.
She was asking the driver about where she was going and if he could tell her when it was her stop.
Cooper says a short time later, the driver pulled the bus over to the side of road, just shy of the stop at 2 Street and 12 Avenue, and lowered the bus to allow the girl to leave. “At that point we noticed she was intoxicated because she had some trouble getting off,” says Cooper.
The bus driver went out to help her up and asked if she was OK.
Cooper says he then came back, secured the bus and told the passengers he was going to help the girl to her destination to make sure she was safe.
“The nice thing was, he stopped and helped her and held her hands and reassured her she was going to be OK,” says Cooper. “He totally went above and beyond, not only what a bus driver would do, but what anyone would do.”
She says no one on the bus was angry at the driver for taking a few extra minutes to help the girl to the door. “Everyone was like ‘aw’, it was so sweet,” she says. “No one was upset he stopped to help.”
When Cooper left the bus at her stop she thanked the driver for helping the passenger. “He said ‘that one had me worried’.”
Cooper would like the bus driver to receive some recognition for his actions. “He treated her with such compassion and respect.”
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