Crying baby gets mum booted off bus

Two older women on 6501 line in Elmshorn, north of Hamburg, did not like all the racket three-month-old baby Mia-Sophie was making while she travelling with her mother to her grandmother’s house.

The women complained about the noise to the bus driver who then made an announcement over the loudspeaker. The mother, 24-year-old Jasmin Trapke, and the screaming baby needed to get off the bus, now.

“I was so surprised at the time that I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to cause any trouble,” she told the Flensburger Tageblatt in an article published this week. “But it’s absurd. What nerve,” she said.

After being put off the bus, Trapke had no choice but to walk 15-minutes on a cold day with her baby to her parents’ house. Her father-in-law was incensed, and took the story to the paper “so that this outrageous story would be made public,” Bernhard Buddelmann said.

The paper contacted the bus company, Die Linie, who said it had no knowledge of the incident, but said it would investigate.

“The driver should have told the two women that they should have a little understanding about the child’s crying,” dispatcher Christian Jacobs told the newspaper.

“Putting the woman off the bus, that won’t do,” he said, although he added that she was not actually forced off the bus, but just asked to leave.

Still, Jacobs apologized in the name of the company and said he will decide on possible consequences for the driver after discussing the matter with him.

While Trapke was appalled by the incident, she said she wasn’t all that surprised, since she is often the target of comments about her child.

“Elderly people especially seem to be very disturbed by young children,” she said. “But you can’t exactly tell a three-month-old to quiet down.”

After the company’s apology, Trapke said she would ride the bus again, adding that she only hopes for a little more consideration from drivers and other passengers.

“Like when you try to get on board the bus with a baby carriage,” she said. “No one ever helps.”

The Local/kdj