Express & Star

Mothers forced a Black Country bus to a 90-minute standstill after being told by the driver to get off – because they had too many pushchairs.

Angry scenes flared, children cried and 12 other passengers had to leave as the four women became locked in a stubborn stand-off with the bus driver.

The 644 National Express West Midlands bus ran into trouble 20 minutes after picking up the four friends and their five children from a young mothers’ meeting in Coneygre Arts Centre in Sedgley Road West, Tipton, at 3pm yesterday.

They were on their way home to West Bromwich when the firm says the driver asked them to fold one of the four chairs up because it was blocking the aisle.

The disgruntled driver then stopped the bus, which had around a dozen passengers, by the Lloyds TSB in Great Bridge Road and refused to move until the women either complied or got off, offering them no money back. Tempers flared when the mothers refused to budge, leading to an inspector being called and the dozen other passengers having to leave and wait 10 minutes for the next bus.

The women, who claim the driver never asked them to fold up a chair, sat tight with their children until 4.30pm, when the inspector was left with no choice but to designate the bus a private charter which took them to straight to their final destination of West Bromwich bus station.

One of the mothers said the bus was even given a parking ticket by a Sandwell Council warden for waiting in a bus stop by the bank.

The drama unfolded after the women had attended a meeting of the Greets Green Teenage Pregnancy Unit.

Furious Isabel Williams, aged 24, of Black Lake, West Bromwich, who was with one-year-old Jaiden, said the driver had happily allowed them to get on with their pushchairs.

“All the children were getting very hot and upset,” she said. “They just wanted to get home. We have all used that bus several times a week and have never had this problem before.

“Eventually an inspector came and said that if the driver thought there were too many pushchairs he should not have let us on. But in the end he made the bus a private charter one and we were taken straight to West Bromwich bus station.

“The other passengers had all decided to leave but they were very supportive and said they knew it was not our fault.”

Four children in pushchairs aged between three months and one year old, had to wait in their buggies on the bus, while 19-year-old mother of two Kerry Payton’s daughter Ellie-May, aged three-and-a-half, sat on a seat.

National Express West Midlands spokeswoman Joy Williams said: “The driver is responsible for the safety of everybody on the bus and in this instance the pushchairs were blocking the aisle.

“As more customers wanted to board the bus it was not possible to continue until one of them was folded down.

“All the other customers boarded the bus travelling behind while the situation was resolved.”