Joan Scott, 83, had her legs amputated after she was trapped under a bus when the driver drove off.
This is a staggering story. This jobsworth closed the doors on her because she forgot her bus pass the week before. Despite knowing that she definitely has a bus pass because all pensioners in the UK get one. Just a total loss of humanity.
Mrs Scott was unable to free herself and, as Cliff drove away, she was dragged under the Go North East vehicle and remained pinned under its rear wheels for almost an hour.
That's the part that horrified me the most. An hour?! That's an eternity. And somehow nobody noticed her despite the bus being in service? I kinda hope she was at least noticed quickly and the delay was something like first responders not being sure how best to remove her, because the alternative of being active dragged for that long with nobody noticing is even worse (as if it wasn't bad enough).
Wait.. ALL pensioners? Not just the ones that worked X hours, it did this, it whatever? It's just she based? WHY would they even need a pass to begin with? Just check the age on her id.
Well, it's all residents. Tourists from abroad still have to pay. So from a system-point-of-view, the bus passes do make sense (since it's easier/quicker to check a bus pass than a passport plus proof of residency or something). But from a human standpoint there is no point to this.
As far as I know, there is no standards ID card that everyone has to carry in the UK. And it's (thankfully) not like countries where everyone is expected to have a driver's licence to identify themselves, since a fair number of people don't drive in the UK (and that assumption sucks anywhere).
Even if she didn't have a pass or was the person who didn't pay last time (the driver was mistaken), they never should have closed the door while a person was in them.
Even if the door had managed to detect she was still in the way, the door closing on her could have injured her. And there's surely always something that could get stuck in the door without the sensor detecting it. If not a walking stick like this case, then a thin piece of clothing.