A BUS company has apologised after drivers failed to tell a blind woman where her stop was three times, leaving her on one service for more than two hours.

Annette Hornsby was on Oxford Bus Company’s city X3 for two-and-a-half hours.

Mrs Hornsby got on in Abingdon Road, Oxford, with her guide dog Pepsi and asked to be set down in the centre of Abingdon.

But the driver did not tell her where to get off and the bus returned to Oxford before going back to Abingdon.

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She got off after another passenger told her when the bus was approaching her stop.

The incident, which happened earlier this month, comes after the mum-of-two also twice missed her stop on a Thames Travel bus. On that occasion she got on in Abingdon and asked the driver to drop her in Abingdon Road, Oxford, but it only stopped when it terminated in St Aldate’s.

It then changed route to Milton Park, Didcot, and it was only when Mrs Hornsby asked another passenger that she found out it was the wrong bus.

Mrs Hornsby, of The Hyde, Abingdon, said: “They could put announcements on buses to let people know where to get off.

“I understand that drivers are having to concentrate on the roads but it is not as if they have a bus full of people who want to be told where to get off.

“The bus is my main way of getting about so things like this impact on my independence.

“It knocks your confidence in the end and it gets to the stage where you think it is too much hassle to even bother.

“It just turns out to be more stress than it’s worth.”

Both bus companies have apologised to her.

Oxford Bus Company operations director Phil Southall said: “It’s quite obvious we have let Mrs Hornsby down and she hasn’t received the sort of care she and all our passengers deserve.”

He said the firm, which is holding an inquiry into what happened, regularly holds disability awareness training sessions.

He added: “We would also like to invite Mrs Hornsby to visit our training school when we run our next course so she can tell our drivers, at first hand, about the issues she faces.”

A third of its buses have audio visual announcements and he said it is committed to rolling this out across all services.

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