Woman blocks bus for 20 minutes after missing her stop
An agitated bus passenger who missed her stop was caught on video blocking a bus by standing in front of it, holding up passengers for 20 minutes.
The incident happened on Saturday night in the Tai Seng area, near Upper Paya Lebar Road, and involved bus service 43.
Mr Pravin Kumar, 40, an operations manager in the food and beverage industry, recorded the incident and posted the video on social media.
Yesterday, he told The New Paper the incident happened at 11.30pm and there were about 30 people on the double-decker bus at the time.
"I was on the way home from Marine Parade on the upper deck when I heard the commotion," he said.
"I went down and saw the woman in front of the bus, and the bus driver told me in Tamil she had missed a bus stop and was making a scene."
He added that the woman spoke Mandarin only, and so the driver was having difficulty communicating with her.
The video showed the woman repeatedly shouting at other passengers and the bus captain.
She could be heard saying she intended to drop at Paya Lebar, but that the bus driver had not informed her when the bus had reached the stop.
Despite other passengers and the bus operator telling her to take another bus back to Paya Lebar across the road, the woman continued to rant.
Mr Pravin said: "She did not want to listen and seemed adamant. The bus driver was trying his best to explain to her and he seemed quite worried."
He added that the incident lasted about 20 minutes, and the woman let the bus go only after a couple at the bus stop convinced her to do so.
WORRIED
"Everyone was getting worried because we wanted to catch the last bus home," he said.
"Some passengers could not take it and alighted to take another bus instead."
A spokesman for the bus operator Go-Ahead Singapore told TNP yesterday it was aware of the incident.
"The bus captain, one who is experienced and familiar with the route of service 43, was approached by a commuter for directions to a destination and assisted accordingly," she said.
"It is later understood that the original destination provided differed from where the commuter wanted to go."
She added that the bus was later able to continue and complete its trip.
Mr Pravin said he did not post the video to shame the woman but hoped it would encourage others to step forward to offer help in similar situations.
"I actually pity her, because she is in a foreign place and almost no one stepped forward to help her," he said.
"Thankfully, I managed to catch my last bus to get home."
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