\u201cI walked around the corner and I would have gone about 10 steps and the bus has started to move away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was waving my arms frantically in the air … [the driver] didn\u2019t even look back, he just kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he would have been about 20m away from the bus when it drove away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it. I\u2019m looking at my watch and I thought \u2018He\u2019s gone early\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fry rushed back to the cafe where a young couple had been dining before he left. <\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018You wouldn\u2019t be interested in earning yourself $50 cash would you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The man agreed to take Fry in his car and raced after the bus, catching up with it when it stopped in Hastings, which is about a 40-minute drive away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI says to the driver, \u2018What did you leave me behind for?\u2019 He says, \u2018Well, you weren\u2019t on the bus\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fry questioned whether the driver was supposed to do a headcount before leaving stops, but did not get a clear answer, he said.<\/p>\n
He did not know exactly what time the bus left without him, but noted later it appeared the clock on the bus was about four minutes faster than his own watch.<\/p>\n
He was able to reboard the bus and continue on his trip, but said he was out of pocket by $50 because of the misadventure.<\/p>\n
In a statement, InterCity said it had identified Fry\u2019s booking but \u201cfound no reports or notes indicating that a passenger was left behind\/rejoined the service, or that any unusual incident occurred during the journey\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said it was taking the allegation seriously and wanted to investigate further, but could not provide specific comment without contact details for Fry.<\/p>\n
Fry later said he had been in contact with InterCity and that a representative had agreed to refund his $50. InterCity has not responded to further requests for comment from the Herald.<\/p>\n
Fry was motivated to share his experience after seeing a similar incident reported, and said he wondered how many others had also been left behind during bus breaks.<\/p>\n
The Herald earlier reported a woman, believed to be in her 60s, was left behind in Tokoroa when she was \u201cmere seconds\u201d from reboarding her bus.<\/p>\n
Witness Teresa Ngatai had dropped her son at the bus when she saw a woman emerge from a nearby public lavatory and approach the vehicle. However, when the woman was about 2m away, the doors closed and the bus left.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could hear this lady from behind us, and she was frantic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could tell how stressed she was. She\u2019s like, \u2018No, no, no, that\u2019s my bus, that\u2019s my bus. I need to be on that bus\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ngatai called her son, who gave his phone to the driver, and after some back and forth the driver agreed to pull over and wait for Ngatai to deliver the woman to the bus with her own car.<\/p>\n
An InterCity spokesperson confirmed it had received a complaint about that case and an investigation was conducted.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur review found that the stop in Tokoroa was a brief boarding stop rather than a scheduled rest stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe driver advised passengers that the stop would be brief and conducted a check before departing,\u201d InterCity said.<\/p>\n
At the time the coach departed, the driver was unaware a passenger had not reboarded.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe acknowledge that this was an upsetting experience for the passenger involved and regret the distress caused.\u201d<\/p>\n