"Sick" public transport journeys

[Martin2012]

I hope nobody minds me posting this. If anyone is prepared to answer I'd be interested to find out has anyone on here ever had the experience of being on a bus/coach where a passenger has either been sick during the journey or otherwise soiled the seats/interior of the vehicle resulting in the driver having to do some unexpected cleaning.

If so, what vehicle/route were you on at the time and how did the driver deal with the situation? Was the service delayed whilst the driver cleaned up or was a change of vehicle required?

Am thinking largely of situations where this occured due to circumstances such as a passenger being drunk, an innocent accident or maybe a school trip you went on as a child.Not situations where a passenger has had an underlying medical condition, been seriously ill and/or required medical attention

 

[fowler9]

I hope nobody minds me posting this. If anyone is prepared to answer I'd be interested to find out has anyone on here ever had the experience of being on a bus/coach where a passenger has either been sick during the journey or otherwise soiled the seats/interior of the vehicle resulting in the driver having to do some unexpected cleaning.

If so, what vehicle/route were you on at the time and how did the driver deal with the situation? Was the service delayed whilst the driver cleaned up or was a change of vehicle required?

Am thinking largely of situations where this occured due to circumstances such as a passenger being drunk, an innocent accident or maybe a school trip you went on as a child.Not situations where a passenger has had an underlying medical condition, been seriously ill and/or required medical attention

I was on an 82 in Liverpool one evening when a bloke near the front wet himself. The driver kicked him off and carried on going.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've been on the "vomit comet" Saturday 0015ish Euston-MKC and someone has ensured its nickname was valid. Nothing was done, people (including the perpetrator) just moved away from it. Probably got mucked out in the depot (Bletchley CS, I guess, otherwise I don't see why it wouldn't continue to Northampton in service) overnight.

Would be more of an issue if it were the weekday/Sunday 0134 - that one doesn't go to bed, it goes straight onto the 03bleugh from MKC.

 

[ECML180]

As a driver I've only had one sicky from memory - a matter of pride in a way! Kid sick on a school trip which was a pretty unlucky route, winding a roads with lots of roundabouts followed by a undulating route up to the attraction, if he was going to be travel sick he had no chance! No idea what he had for breakfast but he covered the floor with liquid and chunks for a good 3 rows, not to mention himself, his seat and the back of the seat in front. The only option was to offload the kids behind the mess through the emergency door and down the fold out steps at the rear then run to the depot to clear it thoroughly. All the coaches at that firm were supposed to carry cleaning kit but it had dissapeared off that vehicle and it wouldn't have been enough anyway.

 

[overthewater]

THE WORSE case I have ever seen was someone left a BAG of sick hanging on one of the Stagecoach east Scotland, express coaches. The coach was at a termination point 9 so clearly someone left it hanging) and was heading back to Glasgow. I told the driver but he did sod all. I had to report him, Disgraceful.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Oh yeah, I forgot...coach going up to Shimla from Delhi, someone puked on the seat next to me. Fortunately I have a strong stomach (necessary for going to India)...that road really is windy.

 

[Ianno87]

I was on a Birmingham-Liverpool LM once when I turned out to be a guy travelling end to end who appeared to either have the Norovirus, or get extremely travel sick, throwing up repeatedly.

Neither toilet was working on the 350....

(Don't know why he didn't get off at Crewe or somewhere to use the station loos, or just wait half an hour for the next train with functioning toilets)

 

[Martin2012]

Interesting to hear this thread has generated some responses.

I remember one NX journey back from London to Bristol where I ended up on a dupe being provided by a South West based operator.

Upon boarding the driver told me not to sit in the rear seats as a passenger had been sick there on the previous journey. It was on the same side as the emergency exit.The driver had tried to mop it up but hadn't had time to do a deep clean so left the mop standing on the opposite side.

 

[quarella]

One lunchtime during a hot summer I opened the door of the coach I was taking out which had been parked in the sunshine all morning to see if I could get away without sweeping it out as I knew it hadn't been done by the driver the previous night. I was hit by the smell. Right to the back of the throat. About two thirds of the way down behind one of the curtains was a used nappy. Gagging a bit I removed it, sprayed a can of air freshener around and tried to get some air moving. No-one said anything but for that day and a couple afterwards I was smelling a mix of poo and air freshener.

 

[overthewater]

Upon boarding the driver told me not to sit in the rear seats as a passenger had been sick there on the previous journey. It was on the same side as the emergency exit.The driver had tried to mop it up but hadn't had time to do a deep clean so left the mop standing on the opposite side.

That is not allowed... This is what wrong.

 

[quarella]

One lunchtime during a hot summer I opened the door of the coach I was taking out which had been parked in the sunshine all morning to see if I could get away without sweeping it out as I knew it hadn't been done by the driver the previous night. I was hit by the smell. Right to the back of the throat. About two thirds of the way down behind one of the curtains was a used nappy. Gagging a bit I removed it, sprayed a can of air freshener around and tried to get some air moving. No-one said anything but for that day and a couple afterwards I was smelling a mix of poo and air freshener.

 

[175mph]

Once in the middle of summer I was on the way home and someone threw up at the back and it was lucky that one, the bus stop outside the operator's depot was on the route of the service, and two, it was my stop, as the bus was put back in the depot and another bus brought out for the passengers to continue their journey on.

Another time, a late night bus I was waiting for turned up very late because the driver said someone threw up forcing him to return the bus to the depot and get another one.

I very nearly threw up on a bus last week and had to ask the driver to stop and let me take deep breaths at the next stop. I didn't vomit in the end, just felt very shaky but still.......

 

[185]

Before the days of Sat-nav, remember taking the 383 Wrexham Edinburgh off route during some festival that was on near Harrogate. Used the backroads to get to Ripon staying just on time, with some wobbly humpbacks that didn't seem to cope well with a 46-seater Volvo. Needless to say, the humpback bridges at 50mph led to a young lady vomiting everywhere over the back seats.

Yep. I was the one lumbered with cleaning it Learnt an old trick with cans of cool, sugary coke - it kills the smell.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I have been in the unfortunate position of being next to a few people who have peed themselves, all but one of them was elderly and unsure if accidental or lazy. Drivers have often not cared but 1 stood out as he very politely asked the old dear if she was ok, said hed rather not have her on his vehicle any more and then cleaned with the help of stuff provided by a local petrol station down the road. Delayed us a bit but good service.

A few intoxicated punters have had various bodily accidents on buses and trains iv been on but only 1 has ment any cleanup/disruption etc but the 1 that stands out for a service bus was wating for a 21 in edinburgh where the driver pulled into my stop and sai he was sorry but he couldnt take me or anyone else as someone had spewed multiple pints and a curry over a large area of the scabby dart (what other kind was there internally) and would have to back to the depot. Me and 1 other punter had been wating ages in the wind cold and rain and as we both lived within walking distance of it begged the driver to let us on into the 2 seats in the wheelchair area which wernt covered in the stuff. He took aminute to decide but let us on and we ran all the way not in service. Best bit was the contract cleaner wating at the other end with his team laughing and saying how brave we all were for tollerating it!

 

[Tetchytyke]

Oh, loads of times. As a regular traveller on the late night Euston-Milton Keynes trains I saw it fairly often, especially on a Saturday night. Seen it a couple of times on the X10 back from Middlesbrough, with the driver making everyone sit downstairs, and a few times on late night buses in Newcastle. Had an ambulance out one time because the drunk guy chucked everywhere and then passed out.

 

[spuddie]

One near incident I had was whilst I was on my break in the depot I was told that some one had been sick on the bus (Leyland National) I was due to shortly go and take over at Hatfield on route 302 towards Potters Bar. As their was no spare buses available at the time we came up the plan that I would take it over at Hatfield as planned, continue on route with sea of sick sloshing from side to side and then divert back in to North Mymms garage to get it mopped out. Fortunately at the very last second a MCW Metrorider came back in from Borehamwood and I was able to swap vehicles over and keep the MCW instead. Next day I was on a different shift and had route 366 to Luton. Took it over at Welwyn Garden City Luton bound to find it was the same Leyland National as the day before....and it absolutely stank of it still all around the front area where the passenger had been sick. I mopped it out again but couldn't see anything missed and ended up driving with the window open both ways even on a chilly day (my request for a vehicle swap was turned down).

A few years later when at Stevenage I was on the late SB1 which had 2 vehicles, normally both Lynxes at that point after a spell of broken windows using the Volvo B10B's as the Lynxes were cheaper to replace. I didn't mind at all as I preferred the Lynxes. After several trips of passing my colleague I was shocked to see him shortly after leaving the bus station on his last journey with an Olympian instead. Unheard of for that time of night. Turns out on his previous journey a passenger had foulded himself over one of the seats so he needed to do an emergency vehicle change and the Olympian was at the front of the queue of available vehicles.

 

[londonbridge]

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showpost.php?p=968120&postcount=23

 

[Welly]

A colleague once admitted to me that when he was 6 or 7 years old on a school trip, he soiled himself on the bus seat.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

A guy was sick on the last service 15 from Perth to Crieff and instead of the driver phoning to get a replacement bus sent out, he drove us all to the depot and made us change there.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I remember getting a Magic Bus on route 42 back to a friend's house in Withington after a night out in Manchester, we all went upstairs but very quickly returned back down as someone had left a big present on the back seat! They had at least wiped, though then left the tissues used in a pile next to their "deposit".

Then there was the time I took the last train of the night back from Mirfield to Huddersfield. It was a 155 and after boarding could see one of the table groups was free... I soon realised why, as one of the four seats had been used to erm, "stifle" a "Technicolor Yawn"!

By far the worst though was when I very suddenly and surprisingly launched into a "Welsh monologue" while stuck in rush-hour traffic heading into Leeds. I somehow managed to avoid splashing my work clothes as I leaned over to the passenger footwell. However as it was my own car it was my responsibility to clean it up, which I wasn't able to do until I got home that evening. Given the smell on that drive home I was lucky that I didn't add to the mess!

 

[plcd1]

Pretty sure I must have endured a coach trip as a kid where someone was sick during the journey but can't remember any specifics.

Last year I had the delight of travelling on a 274 bus in Camden Town while parents changed their infant's soiled nappy. That was, ahem, "different" and not a tad surreal.

A non bus example was travelling on a cross channel ferry on the day of the "Great Storm". That really was a "once in a lifetime" experience. People were being sick absolutely everywhere. The decks were awash with vomit and don't even mention the loos. Bottles and merchandise were crashing off the shelves in Duty Free and any drinks or food trays on tables were soon on the floor. Astonishingly I only felt a little queasy and was not sick on outward or return sailings. The return was rather late because we had to sit at the port in Calais for hours waiting for a sailing.

 

[507021]

A good while ago I was on a bus which absolutely stunk of vomit, even after the "deposits" had been cleaned. I would have got off and waited for the next one, but it was a choice of taking that bus or walking home.

 

[DunsBus]

Many years ago, a drunk passenger on one of the Eastern Scottish City Sprinter minibuses in Edinburgh soiled himself, which resulted in it having to be put out of service and returned to the depot for a thorough cleaning. To make matters worse,the initial batches of City Sprinters had no opening windows - and the aforementioned "accident" took place on a very hot day. I think you can probably guess what the interior must have smelled like.

In the days when First ran the 124 between Edinburgh and North Berwick, one chap decided to relieve himself up the back of the bus on the last North Berwick-bound 124 of the day. The driver saw this happen and immediately tackled him, to which his response was "It wasn't me, it must have been the rain". The driver's response was "it's not raining!" He decided to make the punishment fit the crime and our friend was made to stay on the bus until it reached North Berwick depot. Whereupon, he was presented with a mop and bucket and made to clean the bus out. He was then allowed to go home, although as the last bus of the day back towards Edinburgh had long since left he was faced with a very long walk indeed.

 

[LiftFan]

I do happen to remember one time whilst visiting London someone sitting at the top deck threw up all over the front windscreen, that was not good and the bus was taken out of service