Bus driver praised for turning his bus around to help elderly lady

An Irishman was surprised when he saw online praise for a bus driver who made a kind gesture to an elderly lady, because he realised it was him.

Joe Carroll is a driver for Bus Eireann and made the kind act of turning his bus around after an elderly passenger informed him she had accidentally got on the wrong bus.

She was intending to travel to Galway, but had mistakenly boarded Carroll’s bus which was heading to Cork.

The quick-thinking driver sent a radio message to his colleague who was driving the bus to Galway and asked him to wait at the next stop so that he could deliver the poor lady and set her back on the right path.

Carroll said: “Mallow is the last stop before you get to Cork, so I went up the Mallow road and she was like, ‘I’m on the wrong bus!’

“She told me she meant to go to Galway, I thought for a minute because the Galway bus passed me, so I radioed in and tried to get him to wait up at the stop.

“So I turned back and then I saw the bus driver pulling off from the Mallow stop when I was getting there, I probably would have kept going after him until I stopped him.

“Luckily they got the radio in and they stopped him and she was able to get on with her journey.

“I didn’t think much of it at the time but i just did it automatically, that’s the kind of person I am.”

Later on, Carroll was browsing online and spotted a story that looked familiar. He explained: “I saw the story on Facebook and thought – that’s a nice thing for a bus driver to do – and then realised it was about me!

“I got loads of thanks on the day and since but I just thought it was the right thing to do.

“We’ll all be old someday and she was so grateful.”

The detour added about 15 minutes to the journey, but Carroll explained the situation to his other passengers, and not one protested against the diversion so that the elderly lady could be put straight.

Yvonne Ellard was one of the other passengers on the bus at the time. She said: “Well done to the bus driver on Limerick to Cork route who turned back to Mallow when an older lady realised she was on the wrong bus and also got the Galway bus to wait for her.

“She realised it as soon as it turned onto the Cork road instead of towards Limerick when it left Mallow so it hadn’t gone far.

“He rang or radioed ahead to ask the Galway bus to wait for her then turned around to bring her back. Poor lady was so grateful.”

“The driver did ask if people minded if he turned around. It was only an extra 10-15 mins, so nobody minded. We will all be old some day and it could happen to us.”

Written by Andrew Moore