A young northside student had a longer-than-normal trip to school after missing his stop. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
When Lindi picked up her kids from school early last week, she didn’t expect to hear about an early morning journey one of her sons took just to get to school.
Lindi’s kids rarely take the bus, normally only using it once or twice every fortnight.
In this instance, her two kids got on with no worries but only one got off the bus at the right stop. Her younger son, distracted by a fidget toy, missed his stop and proceeded to stay on the bus through to the end of its route.
It was here that Lindi’s son finally reached out to the bus driver and asked for help. With no-one else on board, the bus driver calmly drove the embarrassed student to his primary school.
While Lindi’s youngest didn’t initially admit his mistake to his mother, his older brother dobbed him in.
“As a parent hearing what happened, the absolute worst scenarios were rushing through my head,” Lindi said.
“I was so surprised, I thought the best scenario would have been that the bus driver would have maybe gotten off the bus and pointed to him where to get on to get the bus back to school. To know that he didn’t even have to get off the bus. He just turned around and drove him back was so comforting.
“I just didn’t expect that from the bus driver at all. Maybe that was the end of his shift and he was able to do it, but regardless, I just feel so lucky.
“I’m just so thankful that the best possible outcome occurred.”
Despite her son being clearly rattled by the event, Lindi can’t help but thank the driver, who is yet to be identified, for helping her son in a time of need.
“I’m not sure what the policy is with Transport Canberra as to whether bus drivers are encouraged to look out for the kids and deliver that service to drive them back. I have no idea. Either way, I really would like an extra special thank you to that bus driver for going out of his way,” she said.
“He didn’t have to, but he did anyway, which was really above and beyond what he had to do.
“It made an experience that was already quite frightening a lot easier than it could have been.
“It’s really given me faith in the bus drivers. This is the first time I’ve had a situation where my child has had to reach out for help. I’ve just been overwhelmingly impressed and feel very reassured.”
