WATCH ABOVE: Boarding a municipal bus in San Francisco was almost impossible for a woman in a wheelchair after she got in to a heated altercation with the driver who told her to “catch the next one.” Joe Vazquez reports.
TORONTO – The treatment of a wheelchair-using woman in San Francisco is under the microscope after she had to argue her way on to a city bus.
Liz Henry recently tried to board a Muni bus but was told by an unidentified driver to “catch the next one.” Surveillance video released of the incident by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) shows not only room inside the bus, but the argument that ensued and the insult it ended with.
Henry: “Every other bus stops right here.”
Driver: “Well the bus is crowded too.”
There’s a Muni bus rule that states drivers can’t force other passengers to make room for wheelchairs but should, at least, ask them to do so.
Henry: “You can let me on. There’s room.”
Driver: “You don’t demand nothing. There’s a guy in a white truck if you want to complain. He’s right there.”
Henry: “We have a right to use the bus. You don’t not let me on because I’m in a wheelchair.”
Driver: “You don’t demand nothing, neither.”
The bus driver did relent and allow Henry to board. But he also got the last shot in as she exited the vehicle.
“You gonna complain anyway, that’s all you is! That’s how y’all live. You shouldn’t even be on the bus,” he said.
The incident was enough to motivate Henry to complain to the SFMTA which eventually led to a meeting Tuesday evening that included Henry, the driver (in another room), union and SFMTA representatives.
“The driver apologized, and added that he did do his job in picking me up and dropping me off,” Henry explained in a tweet.
“I hope Muni will take the complaint seriously, I hope the driver won’t do that again,” she told KPIX. “And I hope they improve their training for all their drivers.”
It’s still unclear whether or not the bus driver will be handed any kind of punishment.
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