Driver filmed telling wheelchair user to 'get off' bus

Nargis Fakhri says she was told by the driver she couldn't get on as there was already a pushchair in the designated space.

Transcript

00:00Just get off the bus. You give disabled people a bad name.

00:05Always have priority.

00:07This bus driver is being investigated by Arriva, after a woman from Strood says she couldn't

00:12board due to a baby's pushchair taking up the space.

00:16Nargis Thackeray suffers with several spinal and back conditions, meaning she relies on

00:21a wheelchair to get around, and she's done so for the last 13 years.

00:25Just get off the bus. You give disabled people a bad name.

00:29He just said, oh you cannot get in, so I'm like, I peeked a little bit and I said, there's

00:34a space, can I please get in? Can you give me a ramp? And then he said, no, there's no

00:39space. And I'm like, could you please ask the people, I'm wet and I'm shivering, I'm

00:45cold. He said, you have no priority, you cannot ask people to move.

00:50Nargis says another passenger hit her when she tried to film the bus driver's attitude,

00:55and that the whole incident has left her feeling scared to go out of her house.

01:00She took my mobile and I was like, who took my mobile? It happened so fast, all I was

01:05feeling pain on my hand. You took my mobile, you're not giving my mobile back, there's

01:10lots of CCTV camera and everyone watch, you took my mobile. And then she said, haha, I

01:17deleted all your videos. I was having a panic attack. I called police and I reported police

01:26everything what happened.

01:28A spokesperson for Arriva South said the bus operator is aware of the incident and it is

01:32being investigated. Conditions of carriage state wheelchairs have priority and that drivers

01:38are expected to ask pushchairs to fold down to make space, although if they refuse, they

01:44say drivers are advised not to get into conflict.

01:47However, Nargis says this isn't the service she received and that the passenger with a

01:52pram was happy to fold down their pushchair.

01:55The thing is we have priority wheelchairs and this is the only place, the designed area,

02:01this is the only place we can travel. It makes me scared because I used to go every day,

02:08every day outside to meet people, doing something. Now I didn't go. Since those things happened,

02:15I didn't go. I'm very upset.

02:18Kent Police is also looking into the incident and says it's investigating the report of

02:22an assault. It was at this bus stop just outside Strood Retail Park where Nargis first tried

02:27to board the bus. She says it could take some time, if at all, before she feels comfortable

02:31to come back and catch one again.

02:33I'm FollowMeHall for KMTV in Strood.