A former bus driver from Swindon says he was 'bullied out of his role' after raising legitimate safety concerns. 

The former Stagecoach driver, who wished not to be named, encountered a dangerous safety issue on one of the buses he was operating and after seeking advice reported it via the company's official channels. 

But after this, he said he was angrily confronted by another employee who verbally abused him over the safety report in front of other people and ultimately reduced him to tears. 

The former driver, who had only joined the company in March 2023, said he raised a grievance against this employee which Stagecoach investigated and upheld. 

But the driver says he was left 'absolutely broken' and with 'shattered confidence' after the incident so had 'no option other than to resign'. 

On January 25, 2024, the driver in question was running the Number 10 service from Freshbrook to Kingsdown when at roughly 11.35am that morning at a stop in Gorse Hill, the passenger doors would not open. 

The driver said he tried to turn the bus off, but it would not, and the emergency door release also did not open the doors, so he had to use the fire exit to leave the vehicle and forcibly open the passenger doors from the outside. 

When he reported the issue, he was told that it had happened the day before and the day before that as well, and then the bus was replaced with an engineer explaining to him that 'this was a known defect'. 

Fearing what would have happened in an emergency, the driver went to speak to his manager who encouraged him to file a 'near miss' report. 

On January 26, while the driver was entering their bus for the day, he says that a senior member of the engineering team aggressively approached him, he asked what his name was and then showed him his phone with the 'near miss' report and asked 'Well what's this all about then'. 

He said that the staff member told him "You are not the boss," to which he replied, "I know I'm not the boss," before explaining he was told to file the report by his superior. 

At this point the senior staff member is said to have become 'very confrontational and aggressive' which led to him explaining his concern about what would have happened if there was a fire, to which the senior staff member responded "But there wasn't". 

The senior staff member is then said to have gotten 'nose-to-nose' with him, which led to him exiting the bus and walking towards the supervisor's office. The staff member is said to have followed muttering "Oh here we go."

The staff member is said to have continued to accuse him of making 'unsolicited allegations' before the driver then told another member of staff that "he is talking to me like a piece of s***'," before bursting into tears. 

Stagecoach investigated the incident after the former driver raised a grievance and Trevor Bayliss, operations manager, wrote to him in a letter dated February 9 to say that disciplinary action would be taken.  

But the driver had already handed in his resignation in an email on January 31. 

In it, he said: "I do not come to work to be abused (verbally) or intimidated, or be made to feel small for doing my job, by anyone, especially a senior member of staff for raising a safety concern."

He is now considering legal action against Stagecoach and has begun pre-claim conciliation with ACAS

Stagecoach have been approached for comment but said it would not be appropriate to do so at this time.