Doncaster dad demands answers after bus driver 'dumps' 13-year-old girls by side of road

A Doncaster dad has demanded answers after his young daughter was '˜dumped by the side of the road' by a bus driver.
The girls were travelling back to Doncaster after a shopping trip to MeadowhallThe girls were travelling back to Doncaster after a shopping trip to Meadowhall
The girls were travelling back to Doncaster after a shopping trip to Meadowhall

Karl Porter’s 13-year-old, Jessica, was returning to Doncaster from a trip to Meadowhall at around 8.30pm on October 4 with two school friends of the same age, when the X78 First bus they were on ended its journey at Rotherham due to delays, rather than continuing to Doncaster as usual.

Jessica and her friends, sitting on the top deck of the bus, only realised it would not be carrying on to Doncaster when the driver turned the overhead lights off.

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Mr Porter said when the girls asked the bus driver whether the bus would be taking them to Doncaster, he told them they should have got off at the Rotherham Interchange, stopped the bus on the dual carriageway on Great Eastern Way and told them to get off the bus.

Mr Porter, of Church Road, Warmsworth, said: “Jessica said they couldn’t believe it, he just dumped them there with no idea of where they were.

“Anything could have happened to them there, they could have kidnapped or been murdered, or anything.

“She phoned us to say what had happened, and I was only able to find out where she was because I’ve got the Find My iPhone app which told me her location.

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“Luckily there was an Aldi nearby where they were able to go and wait while I came to pick them up, which is just as well because anyone could have turned up.

“The girls were very shaken when I came to get them.

“They were only allowed to go to Meadowhall on their own because there was a bus that took them directly back to Doncaster where they would have been picked up, and you expect that you can rely on public transport to be reliable. If the bus driver needed to terminate the service then there’s nothing you can do about that, but he should have checked to see if anyone else was on it before he did. He could tell that they were only young girls, so why did he just leave them there like that?

“I complained to First and they don’t seem to have taken it seriously, but I really want them to because what if this happened to anyone else?”

“They might not be quite as lucky as Jessica and her friends.”

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A spokesman for First Buses said: “We’re very sorry for what happened on October 4 on one of our services.

“I can assure Mr Porter that this has been extremely seriously.

“The depot team have investigated, including an interview with our driver, to ensure such incidents are not repeated.”

“Unfortunately the service had suffered delays on a previous trip, which meant it had to be adjusted in order to regulate the timetable. Adjustment of services is a last resort when services cannot catch up time.”