Mother of 2 chides SBS Transit after being told not to use profanities during stroller door incident
A mother of two who lodged a police report against an SBS Transit bus driver for allegedly closing the bus door on her double stroller while her children were inside has clapped back at the transport operator's official response.
Athirah Khairwan, a 28-year-old content creator who had earlier spoken to Stomp on the Jan 12 incident, uploaded a TikTok video on Jan 15.
Her latest video has already received 140,000 views – at least 10,000 more views than the original TikTok video in which she shared about her experience.
In her latest video, Ms Athirah shared screenshots of SBS Transit's official response to her.
According to the screenshots, SBS Transit told Ms Athirah that it was "dismayed" by her experience, acknowledging that the bus captain could have "done better".
"There is also no excuse for his choice of words used which is unbecoming of a bus captain," the email read.
The company further apologised to Ms Athirah for the incident and assured her that actions were being taken against the driver to avoid repeat incidents.
'Rather throw profanities than hands'
However, Ms Athirah took issue with a particular line in SBS Transit's response.
The line reads: "We also would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to treat our employees with respect by not using profanity which is verbally abusive."
Sharing a screenshot of her response to the sentence, Ms Athirah reasoned that she had only "acted this way" as a reaction to the driver's "insensitive" comment.
"How do you expect me to react when I know my child is in potential danger?" the mother of two questioned before jokingly acting out a hypothetical exchange between her and the driver.
"Yamete kudasai (stop it, please), oh my God, bus driver captain 145, do you need some rest? Never mind, okay. Let me drive, so you don't get into any accidents," Ms Athirah said.
The content creator highlighted that while she respects bus captains, it's her "natural instinct" to react the way she did as her children were in "potential danger".
Ms Athirah also noted that she did not share the original clip of her heated exchange with the driver as there was "construction" and it was "so noisy".
'Respect, babe', but where's the video?
Ms Athirah's latest video has earned her some praise from netizens, including one who wrote: "respect u for being firm babe💪 GO MAMA!!!"
TikTok user @mssha_rifah appeared to agree with Ms Athirah's sentiment on taking strollers into buses. She wrote: "SBS should make taking strollers into buses an easier experience for all parents."
However, a handful of commenters pointed out that Ms Athirah had not uploaded the full video of her exchange with the bus captain for context.
One user even asked Ms Athirah what she had shouted at the driver, saying: "I doubt the bus driver would just shout back at you about something so personal."
Stomp has reached out to SBS Transit for a response.
