Полиция Монреаля силой вывела пассажира с автобуса Megabus из-за спора за место

Montreal police forcibly remove passenger from Toronto-bound Megabus Witnesses said debacle began after bus employee told passengers there were not enough seats Article content A pair of Montreal police officers forcibly removed a passenger from a Toronto-bound Megabus on Tuesday morning after the bus was delayed for about 90 minutes. The removal followed a seating dispute that passengers and Megabus describe differently. Two witnesses told The Gazette that staff said there were more passengers than available seats after the initial bus scheduled to make the trip was replaced with a smaller one. Megabus says police were called after a man, who was occupying two seats, could not produce proof of a second ticket and refused to free the seat beside him. “There was no yelling, no argument,” said Uri Berman Kleiner, who filmed the police intervention and was travelling with fellow passenger Daiana Bolini. Berman Kleiner and Bolini said they arrived shortly before the bus’s scheduled 6:30 a.m. departure on Aug. 11 and boarded without incident. About 15 minutes later, they said, a Megabus employee came aboard and told passengers there were not enough seats and asked for three people to volunteer to take a later service. “No one responded,” Berman Kleiner said. Megabus spokesperson Dan Rodriguez confirmed that the shortage resulted from a change in buses. “The scheduled 6h30 departure was delayed due to a lack of double buses in the yard,” Rodriguez said to The Gazette, adding that a single bus was substituted. Rodriguez said the change meant three passengers who would have had seats on the double-decker no longer had one. Megabus says the seat beside the passenger who was later removed could have accommodated one of those three people. Rodriguez said the man claimed to have purchased a second ticket for the adjacent seat but could not produce it when asked. Staff then asked him to move his belongings so another passenger could sit there. “He said he wanted no one to sit next to him,” Rodriguez said. “He was uncooperative with our staff and proceeded to make a commotion so police were called.” At about 7 a.m., 30 minutes after scheduled departure, two people, Berman Kleiner and Bolini, described as security guards, boarded and spoke with the man for several minutes. "We were near the front of the bus while the man was seated nearer the back, but we didn't hear any shouting or see a physical confrontation." "The conversation appeared calm. We heard from other passengers that the man had reserved two seats, including the one beside him." Shortly before 8 a.m., Berman Kleiner began filming as two Montreal police officers approached the seated passenger at the rear of the bus. "The passenger looked unwilling to stand up and leave, but I didn't ever see him becoming physically confrontational with the police." The video shows the officers lifting the passenger from his seat and moving him, bent forward, through the aisle and off the bus. Megabus’s published terms say the company may refuse transportation to or remove passengers whose conduct is disorderly, offensive, abusive, illegal or violent, or who fail to comply with or interfere with the duties of the driver. Rodriguez said an additional bus was put into service at 8 a.m. to accommodate passengers affected by the capacity issues and overbooking on the 6:30 and 8 a.m. departures. Montreal police told The Gazette that, since there was no arrest, they could not locate a record of the intervention. Berman Kleiner and Bolini said their bus left Montreal at about 8 a.m., roughly 90 minutes after its scheduled departure. The pair later complained to Megabus about the delay. “If they had said, ‘Take the next bus, we’ll refund your ticket, and you travel for free,’ this entire issue would have been solved,” Berman Kleiner said. “People would have volunteered. I think we would have volunteered. “It shouldn’t work like this; it’s very unfair for people."