\u201cI always get off at the front because I like to thank the driver,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Isabel said she stepped off the bus with her right foot first, but as she moved her left leg towards the pavement, the driver closed the doors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happened so quickly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe door pushed my leg, and I lost my balance and spun out of the bus in a semi-circle and fell heavily on my right hip into the gutter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isabel said she was helped by two passengers and Auckland Transport (AT) staff who were on board the bus.<\/p>\n
An ambulance was called and she was taken to Middlemore Hospital, where she spent seven days recovering.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s had a huge impact. I was quite fit and strong before this happened, and now I do have pain and stiffness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isabel required specialist treatment and has undergone physio for lower-back issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll go on the train but I won\u2019t go back on the bus,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
AT group manager for public transport operations Rachel Cara said a full investigation by the operator found the doors were closed prematurely while Isabel was still exiting the bus.<\/p>\n
Cara said the driver and transport officers immediately assisted Isabel after the fall, while customer service staff later contacted her, asked about her recovery and supported the investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protocol for drivers is to wait until the passengers are fully disembarked before closing doors,\u201d Cara said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bus operator apologised to the passenger, reaching out to check on her welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the incident, the operator issued a reminder notice to all drivers and updated training materials.<\/p>\n
Isabel said she felt AT\u2019s response did not adequately reflect the seriousness of her injuries.<\/p>\n
She said despite receiving an apology note from the bus driver, she was disappointed to later be offered a $20 Hop card top-up when she asked whether compensation was available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI always get off at the front because I like to thank the driver,\u201d she said. Isabel said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,6030,806,51,46300,30482,5201,6741,41087,13631,111,43,139,69,6662,14734,231807,112672,115177,21529,312,20863,42327,38291,43211,1529,1316,1533,1354],"class_list":["post-456070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-again","tag-as","tag-auckland","tag-broke","tag-bus","tag-closed","tag-doors","tag-fractures","tag-never","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-off","tag-passenger","tag-pelvic","tag-pelvis","tag-prematurely","tag-ride","tag-says","tag-she","tag-stepped","tag-stepping","tag-suffering","tag-three","tag-when","tag-will","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}