Wheelchair v.Buggy – Disabled Man Wins Case
20 Jan 2018
A disabled man has won a Supreme Court case after a dispute with a woman with a buggy over wheelchair space on a bus.
It means bus drivers will have to do more to accommodate wheelchair users.
Wheelchair user Doug Paulley brought his case after he was refused entry to a FirstGroup bus in 2012, when a mother with a pushchair refused to move.
First Bus said the ruling meant drivers would not have to remove customers from its vehicles, while Mr Paulley said the ruling would make “a major difference”.
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.
Disability charity Scope said the ruling was “an important milestone”.
Penny Mordaunt, the Minister for Disabled People, Work and Health, said she would be talking to the Department for Transport about “clarity, good practice and the powers of transport providers to ensure this ruling becomes a reality”.
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