The police were called and Jess, 88, was removed by officers.
10:34, 16 Feb 2026Updated 16:43, 16 Feb 2026
Jess Mill, is demanding an apology.(Image: Marcello Mega)
An 88-year-old Edinburgh blind woman says she was dragged off a bus by police after the driver called them when she couldn’t find her pass. Jess Mill was left distraught and in pain from a badly bruised leg.
She said the Lothian Buses driver lost patience with her when she was -struggling to find her concession card for free travel and asked her to get off. She had been at the Leith Dockers Club for an event and was trying to get home.
Already cold from waiting at the bus stop, she showed him a letter she carries showing she is registered blind. But the unnamed driver said she needed the pass to travel or would have to pay the fare.
Jess had to empty out the contents of her handbag to find her pass – but she claims the driver then refused to accept it and told her to get off. When Jess refused the driver took the bus off the road and called the police – who physically removed her.
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Now Jess, from Leith, is demanding an apology. She said: “It’s hard to believe what we’re coming to when a bus driver won’t take an old blind woman the two stops to her home, whether I had my pass with me or not.
“But it’s even harder to make sense of how those police officers treated me. Is that really what we’re paying the police service to do, to bully and intimidate old, vulnerable people?
“After the police officers had spoken to the driver, the female came up to me and said that if I didn’t get off the bus, she was going to take me off. I told her she wouldn’t do that, and I believed what I was saying, until she grabbed me by the shoulders and started pulling.
“I must have blacked out for a few seconds because I can’t actually recall the moment I went from the bus to the pavement, but when I came to my legs were sore and my glasses were all scratched. I was baffled and crying and I still feel very vulnerable because of this.”
She added: “What was the point of the driver making everyone else wait for another bus because he didn’t want to drive me home? It’s not as if I was a threat to anyone.”
Jess said most drivers treated her and other elderly and vulnerable people with kindness. She said: “There’s a woman driver I get regularly on a Sunday after Mass who calls out to the other passengers when I get to my stop that she’ll just be a minute as she wants to take me across the road.
“That’s the good side. This other driver doesn’t seem to be fit to do the job. I wouldn’t like to rely on him to do the right thing if a young lassie the worse for drink needed to get home and couldn’t find her fare.”
A Lothian Buses spokesperson said: “We can confirm that one of our buses was involved in an incident on Duke Street and have fully assisted Police Scotland with their inquiries.”
In response to questions about the firm’s policy on vulnerable passengers, the spokesperson said they had nothing to add.
A Police Scotland spokesperson confirmed the January 31 incident and added: “Officers attended and removed a woman from the bus. There were no reports of injury and there will be no further police involvement.”