Bus driver faces sack after road-rage incident

A bus driver is facing the sack after a road-rage incident in downtown Auckland in which he tried to drag a woman from her car, and then floored a 64-year-old man who came to her aid.

"It was totally uncalled for. He had totally and completely lost it," said Milford resident Bill Ellingham, who found himself punched to the ground on Queen St about 2.50pm on Tuesday.

Mr Ellingham said he had watched from the footpath moments earlier as the Stagecoach driver beeped his horn at the woman's car for about 30 seconds. Her car was in front of the bus and had stopped at an intersection to allow turning traffic into Darby St.

"The woman couldn't move without blocking the intersection," Mr Ellingham said. "She did nothing to aggravate him apart from being stopped in the line of traffic."

Witnesses say the bus driver then got out of the bus, which was empty, and went to the woman's car and tried to drag her from it.

"He also tried to push the car himself and I went up to him and said words to the effect of: 'Cut that out, there's no need for that', and two seconds later I'd got the biffo and was on the ground," Mr Ellingham said.

"He said a few abusive words to me and the crowd in general, as quite a large crowd had gathered by then. As I was being helped up off the ground, he jumped in the bus and took off, running a red light to get away."

Mr Ellingham, who called the police, had minor injuries. The woman had her seatbelt on and managed to remain in her car. Police are investigating. No charges have been laid yet.

Stagecoach immediately replaced the driver and suspended him on full pay. Their investigation should be completed by the end of the week. Stagecoach executive chairman Ross Martin said the driver in question did not have any record of past road-rage incidents and the news shocked him as much as anyone. "It's a terrible incident and rest assured that anyone who behaves like that won't be in the employment of Stagecoach."

Auckland Tramways Union president Gary Froggatt also criticised the driver.

"Here we are trying to protect our drivers from being attacked and for one of our own to do something like that is totally unacceptable."