To the Directors of East Yorkshire Motor Services Ltd.,
We are writing to you to incite change to enable women and girls to travel home safely, especially at night time and at weekends, following reports of a 16-year-old girl left at Beverley Bus Station on Sunday evening, 7 November 2021.
According to reports and video footage, a young girl was left stranded and alone, except for a police officer, after an East Yorkshire bus driver refused to let her board. It was the last bus home. The young girl was 16-years-old; in the eyes of the law, still a child. Video footage shows she pleaded and sobbed to the driver to let her travel on her bus service home to Dunswell, a village near Woodmansey, Beverley.
However, instead of showing the young girl compassion and prioritising her safety, the bus driver beeped his horn and revved his engine to get her to move out of the way. If this incident had not been witnessed by a police officer, who had been dealing with a previous incident, the 16-year-old would have been left at Beverley Bus Station alone and frightened.
Your bus driver cited “health and safety” for not allowing the young girl onto the bus. However, as pointed out by the police officer, there were no hazards nor risks to allowing the girl on the bus. Your bus driver said: “I’m just doing my job.”
As a provider of public transport, East Riding Motor Services has a duty of care to the people who use its buses. In the past month, there has been at least one reported attempted assault on a young woman in Beverley—how would you all feel if because of this incident there had been another?
We are proposing the following to protect women and girls, who are vulnerable on public transport on weekends and night times when travelling alone:
You can read the report on this incident and watch the video footage here: hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/...
We hope that you will work with us to make these changes and ensure the safety of women and girls travelling on your bus network in the future.
Signed by: