Hurt passenger calls for change
Fall follows woman’s death on double-deck bus stairs
A68-year-old Orewa man hospitalised after falling down the stairs of an Auckland double-decker bus is calling for more to be done to prevent similar accidents.
Len O’Connor’s injuries last month follow the death of a 74-year-old woman after she fell down the stairs on a Ritchies bus in Silverdale in July.
O’Connor, an engineer, was rushed to hospital in early December after the fall.
After the bus — also a Ritchies bus — had stopped, he headed from the top deck to the doors at the bottom.
But the bus began moving while he was still on the stairs and he fell to the bottom.
When he hit the floor, the bus stopped and a couple of other passengers attempted to help him up.
“The bus driver asked me a number of questions — my name, my address, my phone number and asked if I was able to walk.”
After trying to take a few steps, it was clear he was unable to walk.
One of the passengers flagged down a security guard, who happened to be in the area at the time, to assist.
“She asked if I thought I needed an ambulance, and I said ‘yes, I do.’ I could feel my back and foot hurting.”
As it turned out, he had injured his leg, back and had some internal bleeding which he said may have been aggravated by the blood-thinning medication he was on.
In the following days he underwent surgery and spent six days in hospital but was admitted again later in December for another operation.
After complaining to Ritchies, he said he was told the driver checked his cameras before driving but did not see O’Connor as there were no cameras in the stairwell.
Ritchies said it would look into the issue with the cameras, O’Connor said.
In an email to O’Connor on December 17, which he provided to the Herald ,a spokesperson from Ritchies’ North Shore depot apologised to him for the “mishap”.
“The drivers will be dealt with [according to] our inhouse procedure. Also, we will be monitoring the double decker services.”
But O’Connor was not satisfied with the response.
“I just want them to know they have to take [this issue] seriously because more people are going to get injured on the stairs,” O’Connor said.
He said other systems should also be in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again to anyone else.
“I made a suggestion that, much like [traffic] lights, there should possibly be a lighting system that warns passengers to remain seated (red light for example) until the bus comes to a final stop and then a light changes to — say green — indicating it is safe to get up and leave the bus.”
He did not hear back from Ritchies regarding his suggestions.
Andrew Ritchie, the company’s boss and the person who deals with media inquiries, was not available for comment.
In a statement, Auckland Transport said it worked closely with its bus operators to ensure passengers were safe on board.
“This includes our operators providing ongoing training to all the bus drivers in support of safe transit of customers.
“We encourage passengers to hold on to the railings when using the stairs and to only use the stairs when embarking and disembarking the bus when it is stationary.”
After the woman’s death in July, Auckland Transport said Ritchies was undertaking a full investigation and WorkSafe was making inquiries.