Punggol woman says bus captain yelled at her family to wait & frightened her children

She lodged a police report as the user who posted the video refused to take it down.

Zi Shan Kow | March 17, 2022, 05:45 PM

Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

A video clip of a woman shouting at a bus captain at a bus stop along Sumang Walk in Punggol on March 13 was widely circulated online.

The mother of two, Wang, 31, has since given her side of the story to 8world.

Bus captain yelled for them to wait

According to Wang's account of the incident, she was waiting to board the bus at the front door alongside her husband and elder son.

Meanwhile, her helper was pushing her younger daughter on a stroller, preparing to board the bus from the rear door.

She saw the helper standing to the side of the rear door, checking to see if anyone was alighting.

"She did not see anyone, so she started to push the stroller onto the bus," Wang told 8world.

The helper pulled the stroller back when she saw movement in the bus and thought that someone was alighting.

The helper moved the stroller back and forth three times but did not board the bus, Wang said.

Then, she heard the bus captain shouting in the bus, two or three times, "You wait a moment."

Wang and her children were taken aback:

"The bus captain was shouting very loudly. Even though I was outside, near the front of the bus, I could hear her. I was startled, and I didn't know what was happening. I felt that my helper and kids were also scared."

Wang said her helper could not see where the bus captain was, and did not know that there was a wheelchair on the bus.

Confronted bus captain for yelling

"I feel like my family, my children, were frightened. The bus captain only walked over to tell us that a passenger in a wheelchair was alighting the third time the helper pulled back," said Wang.

As a mother, she said she felt like she was responsible for protecting her kids.

Wang then tried to reason with the bus captain.

She told the bus captain, "Why can't you speak to us properly? Why must you shout? Why didn't you tell us that a passenger-in-wheelchair was alighting?"

It was at this moment that the 7-second video clip was taken, which captured her saying: "You are a bus captain, I don't owe you anything."

She clarified this statement and reworded what she had meant:

"You are a bus captain, you should know what to do. You should have said that there was a passenger in a wheelchair who was alighting. There was no need for you to yell at us, we don't owe you anything."

Wang felt bus captain had poor attitude

Wang said she became agitated because of the bus captain's poor attitude, reported 8world.

She also noted that the bus captain's attitude only improved slightly when she asked to pull up the CCTV footage.

Wang felt that the bus captain's behaviour had crossed the line and had instigated the incident.

"It takes two hands to clap. If she didn't yell at us first, we wouldn't have done anything," said Wang.

In her opinion, a trained bus captain would have first informed passengers that there was a person in a wheelchair who was alighting, instead of shouting for the confused passengers outside the bus to wait.

Video was taken out of context

Wang also felt indignant because the user online who shared the video only captured a snippet of what took place and failed to show the incident in its entirety.

"She is taking it out of context, what is she trying to gain from this? She is attacking my reputation, and I can no longer live a normal life," she said.

Wang shared that she had requested the video to be taken down, but was blocked subsequently.

She lodged a police report on March 14, and the police is currently investigating the incident, reported 8world.

Follow and listen to our podcast here

Top image by Chen Yunting/Facebook.