On 9 Dec 2017 at around 6.50pm, my son and I board SMRT Bus no 187 (vehicle plate no: SMB1399D) at Bus Stop ID: XXXXX. My son went to the rear of the bus while I tap my Adult Monthly Travel Card on the EZ link card reader and chase after him.
The bus captain shouted from the driver seat and informed me that my son had not pay for his bus fare. So I approached to the front to inform the bus captain that my son is a 6 year old boy and willing to show him supporting documents to ask for leniency because I did not bring my son’s Child Concession Card. However the bus captain was not interested and only informed me that any child above 0.9m in height will be required to tap Child Concession Card or pay a student cash fare.
In my heart, I always has a serious question. How does the bus captain able to identify if the Child Concession Card belong to my child when the card do not have any picture or information for identification purpose? Since this was the regulation and bus captain was not lenient, I informed the bus captain that my decision was to alight the bus with my son using the rear exit doors (since my son is still at the rear of the bus).
Just when my son and I were about to step out of the bus, the rear exit doors were closing. I had to pull my son to my back and cause him to fall down on the floor while the rear exit doors hit me. This was an accident and cause me to come up with 2 conclusions.
1) Bus Captain voluntarily causing hurt to his passengers because of his unprofessional conduct of ‘unhappiness’ by closing the rear exit doors to hit his passenger(s) and create an accident.
2) Bus Captain negligent for failure to ensure safety of his passengers alighting the bus and causing hurt to his passengers by closing the rear exit doors to hit his passenger(s) and create an accident.
I hope that SMRT will investigate this accident and get back to us.