Child with severe disabilities denied access to bus after passengers refuse to move prams

Tammy Clare and her son Ethan, who suffers from cerebral palsy, were left on the pavement on their way to hospital

(Tammy Clare)

The mother and carer of a boy with severe disabilities has spoken of her anger at being refused entry onto a bus in Logan City, near Brisbane in western Australia.

Tammy Clare said she and her 12-year-old son Ethan were left waiting on the pavement after pram users refused to move from the disabled seating area.

“I was angry and frustrated because I think the bus driver should have done more,” she told Quest Newspapers.

“They are only strollers, there wasn’t any baby in the pram and they could have easily folded it up and gone to a regular seat.”

Ethan suffers from spastic quadriplegia, a severe form of cerebral palsy that affects the whole body. He is unable to walk, talk or see and requires frequent operations.

The pair were travelling to an “essential” hospital appointment when Ms Clare says they were refused access to the bus and had to wait for the next one.

According to TransLink, the company that runs the local buses, wheelchair users have priority in the designated disability seating areas, but it is up to the driver to ask passengers to move.

“Using discretion, the driver can request a person with a pram or stroller occupying a designated wheelchair space to store it in the luggage area, to allow a person in a wheelchair to travel,” a TransLink spokesperson said.

Ms Clare said getting around with her son had become more difficult after his disabled access mini-van broke down.

“It is much, much harder now, we have to walk and catch three different buses just to get to the hospital appointments,” she said.

In 2014, Doug Paulley, a wheelchair user from Wetherby in Yorkshire, was awarded £5,500 in damages after he was denied access to a bus when a woman with a sleeping baby refused to move.

Leeds County Court ruled that the First bus group’s policy of “requesting but not requiring” non-disabled bus passengers to vacate the space if needed by a wheelchair user was discriminatory.

But the decision was later overturned by judges in the Court of Appeal.

This means that it is still within a bus company’s legal right to refuse access to a disabled passenger, as long as the driver takes “all reasonable steps short of compelling passengers to move from the wheelchair space.”

Mr Paulley has launched a new appeal against First Group which will be heard on 15 June.