Unbelievable but perfectly applicable in a country where a good portion of its population has absolutely no culture of any kind. A bus driver in Athens demanded that a blind woman and her guide dog get of the bus because he felt annoyed by the dog’s presence. Despite reactions by many passengers, despite that the law allows assistance dogs in public transport means, the driver insisted on his demand and even called in the police to help him “get rid” of the “troublemaker” passenger.
The incident occurred last Monday in Chalandri, suburb of northern Athens and ended in the police station where the blind dog owner Ioanna Maria Gertsou filed a complain.
Writing about her ugly experience, Gertsou posted on her Facebook page that she received also phone calls by the bus drivers’ union who were trying to justify the unexcused behavior of their colleague saying “the driver has children” – as if having children and being a parent is an excuse for the absolution of such an asocial behavior towards citizens with special needs.
Posted by the owner of dog May on Facebook:
Today the terrorist (May) was taken to police station of Chalandri.
“At the police station, the officer on duty tried to persuade me that the driver’s behavior was not racist against me, but it had to do with the dog, ” Gertsou wrote.
“Then the station commander took over the case and told me that the driver showed regret and we should consider the human part etc etc. I told him then that humanity needs balls, and not when we come to police (that the driver had called) to prove that the driver was wrong and we have to demonstrate humanism,” she added
The driver was fined with an “administrative fine” of 300 euro. He told Mega TV, he could not understand the complain after he apologized. He claimed, he was not aware of the law for guide-dogs.
Gertsou will file a complain against the driver for racist behavior at a later point because for some reason racist behavior is not related with “a drivers’ refusal to allow a dog-guide for a blind citizen.”
At some point the driver apparently complained that the dog was not wearing a muzzle, but this is not an obligation for guide-dogs in public transport means or public places.
Ioanna-Maria Gertsou and her guide dog May
Gertsou who is also the founder of a school for guide dogs for the blind knew very well how to defend her rights as the law explicitly allows dogs in buses and especially service dogs. But can you imagine, if another blind passenger with his guide-guide could not defend himself?
The Greek Law for Guide Dogs
According to Law 3668/2010 , Article 16, paragraph 7, in effect since 3. August 2010
“Guide dogs for blind people are allowed in all public transport means as well as in all public and private areas”
In a additional circular issued on 15. October 15, 2014 by the Ministry of Health, it is clearly stated that
“The mentioned categories of animals are been considered as equal with the citizens they assist for this purpose and are protected by the law provisions of the state. Guide dogs for blinds and other people with disabilities are allowed in customer spaces of food & beverages companies.” In plain English: in restaurants, bars and cafeterias.
Some of you may remember the incident at the then newly established Acropolis Museum, when in April 2010, the director had forbidden a blind woman to enter the museum with her guide dog. I think, the Law of August 2010 was the result of that, another humiliating incident, against people with disabilities. The Museum had offered the woman a … wheelchair! instead of an entrance pass for the dog. Many animal lovers in Athens had boycotted the Museum for this reason. The director had to adjust himself with the law.
Spanish tourist Antonia Pons Losada and her guide dog
I do not know what is worse: an ignorant and illiterate driver who thinks the public bus is “his castle” or the police that sent 4-5 police officers to block the bus in order to get a defenseless troublemaker and her service dog under control.
PS sometimes ignorance of law and human rights in this country is so damn deafening.
There are public education issues involved here. In normal EU countries, the state paid for tv adverts and also school education on such issues about 30 years ago. Pasok was too busy stealing money either to pass appropriate laws or to educate both the public and public servants on any alws that they were forced to pass by the EU.
Now is the time for Tsipras to do something to educate people on the rights of minorities and disabled people. Will he?
It was the same for the new highways: zero public education about lane use and vehicles. For the first 3 years there was a sign that mopeds, motorcycle vans, bicycles, donkeys and horses were banned from the greek autoroute.
Yes I think Xenos is right but I could supplement this by saying that although this driver has been allowed to thrive in a society that can act upon any racist whim without normally any fear of repercussions. This is why Greece needs a fair and balanced leader like Donald Trump who will ensure all peoples whether black, white, disabled or handi-capable as the updated word for handicapped. Greece needs to send a messed that all people have human rights and no amount of migration will take away the Greek spirit. Greece will still be Greece whether Christian, Muslim, or Vulcan. It’s the Greek spirit that counts.
The bus driver of course needs to be fired.
I am saddened by the insulting tone of this post which accuses the Greek people in general of being uncultured. I think that the problem is caused by a lack of education about such policies. It should be the responsibility of employers to inform their staff about legal issues affecting their work and the government should do more to inform the public about such issues.I do not think that taking money from the driver’s pocket will solve anything, he clearly did not know the law, if he was just being nasty he would not have called the police. Education not castigation is the best way to handle this situation.
majority of drivers are rude and have no culture. I once asked one of them at the bus stop if the bus would stop at X point. he told me “what do you care?”, closed the doors and drove away, me left at the busstop. Of course, I officially complain to the OASA company.
Sadly, I think I know what will be the outcome of this anti-social behaviour. We had this in the UK in the 1970s. Bus drivers refused to stop for elderly people, or if it was raining, or if you didn;t throw out your arm sufficiently when waiting at the stop (despite the fact that it would be a compulsory stop). They were difficult with giving change, they were generally unhelpful. When I was about 20, I was on a bus in Manchester which refused to stop for an old woman standing in the pouring rain. I was standing by the driver to get off at the next stop, so I demanded that he stop the bus. He told me “Mind your own business, or I’ll throw you off my bus.” This was the arrogance and illegality of the UK public transport system.
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This changed overnight, when Thatcher privated bus services. Manchester was the first city to do so. All bus drivers were sacked and re-employed on short term contracts at lower pay, and subject to dismissal. The former state company cut its services (and employees) by half. New private companies appeared offering cut-price tickets on popular routes (and were also subsidised by the State on less popular routes). Suddenly, the formerly arrogant drivers became afraid for their jobs, and very very polite and careful. However, the new system was (and remained) a small catastrophe, with poor services and eventually much higher fares.
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The lesson? That working people everywhere tend abuse their positions of unchecked power, and almost invite the public to destroy public services as well as sack them from their overpaid semi-skilled jobs. It is a sad story — one of how ordinary people have damaged their own interests by acting selfishly and in the longer term have allowed the rich to fuck all of us with neoliberal policies such as privatisation and outsourcing of public services. This is where Greece is going — along the same road as northern Europe, and the UK in particular.
C’mon, overpaid bus-drivers, what? It’s a sad story but at least it’s a big and loud city problem, drivers are just stressed, shout at each other and at the next crossing it’s forgotten.
The solution for his is very easy: free rides for everyone, ban all fuel-run engines and loud music.
Compared with other semi-skilled professions, bus drivers in the UK in the 1970s and in Greece in the 2000s were rather well paid. I don’t think drivers were stressed particularly, they were just arrogant (with exceptions, of course).
Ok, but in most European big cities traffic changed the last years like crazy, every SUV steals space, drivers are like blind mutants listening more to the plastic-voices from outer-space in their “navigation”-bullshit instead of watching the traffic, too fast cyclists coming like jaywalkers from pavements and real jaywalkers with blabla-screens everywhere, so it’s better to stay inside and listen to Μωρά Στη Φωτιά – Στο Δρόμο … I’ll go out to a record store to get one, listen every day and after 20 years I can live a year on the coloured vinyl, wishing back the times of walkman sounding better than any digital shit.
cyclists in Germany are also rude bullies considering the roads belong to them
Right so, the roads belong to them because they were not made for cars, these roads were invented for cyclists and horses in a time were a minority of under 1% was driving cars and nobody is against cars as long as the mutants put their exhaust inside instead of letting it be swallowed by humans; every year 40.000 people in the EU die because of this, since the 50ies 50 million were slaughtered worldwide in “accidents”.
between cyclists and motorists stand the pedestrians – but you don;t know that
I’m against cars, not against peds, against cyclists on pavements and I’m also against cyclists on not from the pavement separated bike-paths if they’re faster than 15 mph, I also don’t stop for cyclists that use the pavement and then cross the road and therefore I mentioned them because they’ve no balls for the streets.
bus-drivers in GR are well-paid, in fact were over-paid with extra benefits like extra money “for starting the engine”. some cuts in wages have been after 2010, but not sure about benefits that can be equal or more than the wage – as usual in gr public sector + DEKO.