A 90-YEAR-OLD volunteer who broke her hip after falling on a bus has spoken of her anger at the bus driver for driving away without properly checking on her.
Carmen Graham has had a hip replacement since falling on the bus and being helped on to the pavement by strangers.
Mrs Graham, from Old Coulsdon, is still attending physiotherapy and said this week: "He should have stopped and found out what happened to me; he should not have just left me."
Mrs Graham had ridden the 466 bus from the Tudor Rose in Old Coulsdon to Brighton Road, Purley, to work her regular volunteering shift at Oxfam.
She says she fell over after the bus stopped in Brighton Road outside the Post Office and she got up to leave.
She said: "I would not think of standing up unless the bus had stopped. So I got up and I held the rail where they put the luggage.
"As soon I got up he jerked the bus backwards and forwards. I lost my grip and went down. My head was virtually level with where he was driving."
Mrs Graham was helped off the bus in November last year by three other passengers, but says she was shocked when the bus driver drove away without investigating whether she was OK.
She said: "The moment they got me on the pavement my leg went out from underneath me and he just drove away and left me on the pavement with three ladies.
"Even if he had to move the bus some reason, he must have known I had fallen [on the bus]."
Mrs Graham was taken to her GP surgery in Old Coulsdon by her daughter and referred to Croydon University Hospital.
Her left hip had to be replaced and she says the incident is seriously limiting her life.
She said: "I am fed up with walking like a cripple. I know I am 90 but nobody would think I am. At Oxfam, they say I never make a mistake.
"I cannot do anything I want to do; I mean I am handicapped in the house. I used to do every bit of work myself – I never had anybody do anything for me at all. Now I am asking my daughter."
Mrs Graham said she had complained to bus company Arriva and has been told her complaint has been forwarded to the claims department.
She added that nowadays she struggles to work up the courage to get back on the bus and to her volunteering work.
She said: "I have been volunteering for Oxfam 27 years in total. I just love it; I am at the till the whole time and I love talking to the people.
"There is a stool behind the till – once I get there I am fine."
Dave Jones, deputy head of customer service at bus company, Arriva, said he could not comment on the specific incident as there was a claim.
But he added: "We do expect our drivers to look after the welfare of the passengers and any incident will be fully investigated."
