STM driver tosses everyone off city bus after one passenger allegedly raises voice

Montreal public transit riders are wondering if an STM driver went too far after he kicked all the passengers off a bus when one rider allegedly raised their voice at the driver for missing a stop.

Video, captured by another passenger, shows the moment the STM driver stops the bus, gets off and argues with a passenger.

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The man then tells everyone to get off the bus. The passengers seem confused and upset.

"I'm not moving. He needs to take us home," one person is heard saying.

When they try to get an explanation, he tells them it's due to a passenger that yelled at him.

"I'm just a bus driver. I get screamed at, I'm a bus driver. Thank you," he said on video.

One by one, they are forced to leave, including an elderly passenger using a mobility device. The driver then takes off, leaving them by the side of road to wait for another bus.

STM passengers kicked off Montreal busThe person who filmed the video asked to remain anonymous but asked CTV News to find out if drivers are allowed to instruct riders to get off the bus.

The STM did not want to comment, but Simon Mathura, one of the directors of Syndicat CA.OM.SC., the bus drivers' union, did.

Mathura speaks for more than 8,000 bus drivers in the province and said they're dealing with more aggressive passengers than ever before.

"We're vulnerable as bus drivers. We don't know who we pick up," he said. "When a situation escalates, he might have been afraid that he would have been hit."

Mathura said the union is investigating, but the video reinforces their call for a barrier between passengers and drivers.

"We've been asking the STM for driver protection cabins for exactly that reason. And probably if the driver had been behind the cabin, he would have kept going because he would have felt safe," said Mathura.

He said it was an unconventional way of dealing with a situation, but, "in this case, we believe that the driver took the best interest to protect everyone."