Photo courtesy CBC.
A legally blind woman living in Victoria has been paid more than $10,000 by B.C. Transit after she complained about drivers repeatedly failing to call out her bus stop.
Helen McFadyen was living in Kamloops when she filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal last year.
Documents say McFadyen’s grievance outlined two occasions when she was a passenger that the driver did not call out the bus stop as is required under BC Transit policies.
Another time the driver did announce her stop, but was disrespectful to McFadyen.
The report says McFadyen confirmed similar experiences on numerous occasions.
The tribunal said the incidents have caused McFadyen ‘considerable stress and anxiety’ and made her late for meetings and forced her to walk in unfamiliar areas.
McFadyen has been awarded $10,000 for the indignity she suffered, as well as $1,500 to cover expenses.
As part of the settlement, B.C. Transit will issue an apology, adopt a code of conduct to ensure all bus drivers are courteous and upgrade training to ‘make their best effort’ to announce all stops.
One of BC Transit’s remedies to the problem is installing a Smart Technology system on all buses in its fleet, which has been completed in Kamloops and is now underway in Victoria.
Once installed, Smart Technology provides GPS tracking on all buses, a visual scroll text to display the next stop, an annunciator to audibly announce each stop and external announcements for passengers waiting at a bus stop to know which bus has arrived at the stop.
With files from The Canadian Press.
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