CT Plus drivers are expected to give wheelchair users help
DRIVERS of Guernsey buses are expected to help accommodate wheelchair users, and the current fleet is well-equipped to cope, CT Plus has said.
The company was commenting after Doug Paulley won a partial victory in a Supreme Court case this week, which means bus drivers will have to do more to accommodate wheelchair users.
The action followed a woman refusing to move her pram from
the area reserved for wheelchairs on a FirstGroup bus in 2012, which meant Mr Paulley could not board the vehicle.
The court said the company should consider further steps to persuade non-wheelchair users to move, without making it a legal duty to move them.
It ruled that FirstGroup's policy of requiring a driver to simply request a non-wheelchair user to vacate the space without taking any further steps was unjustified.
CT Plus has said if a similar circumstance arose on the island, it expected its drivers to react in a way that has now become the aim.
'If there were to be the example of a bus being almost full, but space could be made possible for a wheelchair user to board if pushchairs were folded, then a driver is expected to make a request in the same way they would make a request to accommodate as many as can be safely carried,' it said.
