Scared teen left stranded
A mother is calling for bus companies to take more responsibility for young passengers after her 14-year-old daughter was left stranded in a strange town.
Bay of Plenty woman Teina Owen put her daughter Maia Te Ratana on an Intercity bus for a summer trip to visit friends in Pahı¯atua.
A family friend was supposed to pick Maia up in Palmerston North. Instead, she was left, scared and alone, in Bulls after missing her transfer on Tuesday evening.
Maia said she arrived in Bulls but couldn’t find anyone waiting for the Palmerston North bus, so went back to her first bus driver to ask what to do. She was stunned when he told her she’d missed her connecting bus, before the driver drove off, leaving her alone.
Owen secured a refund and a apology for the ‘‘inconvenience’’ from an Intercity customer representative, but wants bus companies to take more responsibility for young passengers.
This isn’t the first time Intercity has left a teen stranded and when Owen posted what happened on her Facebook page several commenters said it had happened to their children too.
‘‘Knowing that there are similar stories is beyond ridiculous.’’
Intercity has procedures for children aged between 7 and 12 travelling by themselves, who can only travel on certain direct routes. Names and contact details need to be provided for the adults dropping them off and picking them up.
Older children travel on student or adult tickets and no additional care is taken for them above the company’s expectation their drivers are professional and helpful.
Intercity spokesman Daniel Rode said management took Owen’s complaint seriously and had apologised and refunded Maia’s ticket.
GPS records and driver accounts put both buses in Bulls at the same time and two other passengers from Maia’s bus made the transfer to Palmerston North, he said.
‘‘So, we know there was enough time for [Maia] to make the transfer. But ... we can’t say why she missed it.’’
Rodes said the bus driver says he was about to help Maia, but she simply said ‘‘OK’’ and left when told she’d missed the bus to Palmerston North.
Maia remembers that conversation differently.
‘‘He asked what I was going to do. I said I don’t know. He said ‘sorry’ and just drove off,’’ she said.
It was 6.10pm and Maia was all alone in a town she’d never been to before.
‘‘I was really scared. I didn’t know what to do. So, I called Mum. She told me to find Mcdonald’s and stay there so I wasn’t on the street on my own.’’
Owen said she called a family friend to pick Maia up, but the half hour of worry before she got word they had was physically painful.
She believes her daughter, but even in Intercity’s version of events, the company failed to live up to the trust parents put in it when their children travel alone, she said.
‘‘Either way, [the driver] was the adult. He was in charge and he should have made sure she was OK.
‘‘[She] was booked as a student, but she does not look like a bloody adult ... She’s 14 and the driver knew this.’’