Mother’s outrage af ter tram pulls out leaving son, 6, on platform
Little Jayden ‘traumatised’ by station ordeal
A BOY of six was left alone in tears on a tram platform after the driver pulled away before he could join his mother on board.
Jayden Brown was left ‘traumatised’ when the doors closed and he found himself abandoned.
The tram set off despite Jayden’s mother Simone – who also had her eight-week-old baby son with her – pressing the ‘door open’ button and screaming for help.
After getting off at the next station, she ran half-a-mile back down the line to find Jayden.
Last night, Miss Brown, 26, accused ticketing staff of not reacting quickly enough to the situation at Edinburgh Park, in the west of the capital.
She said that a ticketing assistant did not tell the driver what had happened before the tram left, leaving Jayden ‘crying his eyes out’ on the platform.
Tram staff said they monitored the
‘He was crying
his eyes out’
youngster on CCTV and asked a member of the public to stay with him.
Company bosses said the driver then decided it would be safer to carry on to Bankhead station and contact the control room until his mother returned after getting off at the next stop.
But Miss Brown, from the Carrick Knowe area of the city, said the driver should have stopped to let her off. She was furious to be told ‘it wasn’t enough of an emergency to stop the tram’.
She said: ‘I was petrified. They should have let me off. It’s not like there’s one tram after the other. The driver knew within seconds of the tram moving that Jayden wasn’t on.
‘I could have got off and crossed safely. We were about two carriages away from the driver. The assistant was right beside me when it started.
‘He saw it straight away but he just walked towards the driver’s end at a normal pace. There was no sense of, “I’ll get to the driver quickly to let him know”.’
Miss Brown said she got on the tram at Edinburgh Park around 12.45pm, thinking Jayden was ‘right behind her’.
She added: ‘As I got on, the doors shut. I saw Jayden was trying to push the button and I was trying to push the button, but it was red, which was stopping the doors from opening.
‘I was screaming, upset. They didn’t say anything about calling the control centre or CCTV. All they said was that they could not open the door and they couldn’t stop until the next station. I was worried that Jayden was going to walk off or something.’
A Transport for Edinburgh spokesman said the tram driver made the right decision, adding: ‘As soon as our staff became aware, the control room was informed and they kept a watch over the child using CCTV.
‘Further to this, a female passenger at the stop was contacted by our control team and she agreed to stay with the boy until he was reunited with his mum.’
But Miss Brown said: ‘My son could have walked off and it was just luck that the woman on the platform was genuine. It makes me very angry and upset to think tram officials think it was totally acceptable for him to be left with a stranger. They also didn’t tell me he was with anyone, so I was panicking.
‘When I got off at the next stop, no official helped me and they let me run back to the last stop – and I’m not very fit after having had a baby eight weeks ago.
‘It felt like a lifetime to get back to him and my lungs were going to explode. They told me it wasn’t enough of an emergency to stop the tram, which has left me very angry and upset. I’ve now made a complaint in writing.’