Rosso bus driver praised by care organisation

Lukasz with Paul, the bus driver

The registered manager of a Rochdale care organisation has praised a Rosso bus driver for defending one of its service users.

Julie Whittingham, manager of Lifeways, has praised the bus driver for standing up for service user Lukasz Tolkin, 31, after another passenger used a derogatory slur to describe people with a disability.

On Monday 27 June, Lukasz, who is autistic and has a learning difficulty, was making his usual bus journey into Rochdale when a bus passenger called him a r****d.

A clip of the incident has been circulating on social media platforms including TikTok and Facebook, but is understood to have now been removed.

Julie explained how when the passenger got on the bus, his card bleeped, so Lukasz told him he needed to pay.

“The driver asked the passenger to get off, and Lukasz said he needed to pay, because that’s what we’ve told him. The man challenged the driver and told Lukasz, ‘shut up, you r****d.”

“The driver made the passenger get off the bus then because of his language.”

She added: “I feel the bus driver should be commended. Lukasz was sticking up for what he believes is right, and not many people stick up for the vulnerable. The bus driver is a real hero for me; he put himself at risk defending Lukasz, and refused to tolerate this man calling him such words.

“Fortunately, Lukasz wasn’t affected by the incident. He wasn’t upset and he still enjoyed his day out.”

A Rosso spokesman said: "We fully commend and support our driver’s actions in resolving this incident safely,  and with minimal disruption to other customers.

"We have a zero-tolerance approach to physical and verbal assaults on our drivers and customers. We train our drivers in responding to events like this, which are thankfully a rare occurrence."