A RETIRED university lecturer filmed himself as he blocked a bus for FIVE hours in protest at thick black smoke it was producing.
Chris Rust stopped his bike in front of the 17-year-old vehicle at a bus stop and refused to budge for the entire afternoon.
The 71-year-old, who livestreamed the protest on Facebook, only backed down when police arrived and persuaded the bus firm to have the vehicle’s emissions tested.
First South Yorkshire defended their fleet saying they record emissions tests on every vehicles every 28 days.
Chris, from Sheffield, filmed his protest from Union Road live on Facebook Tuesday afternoon .
He begins by filming the bus at a stand still and explaining why he had to intervene.
Referring to the bus driver, Chris said: “Every time he’s stopped he’s put out a very thick black smoke, really thick I mean shockingly thick.
“So I’m standing in front of the bus and he needs to get a tow truck because the vehicle is a risk to public safety.”
During this, Chris also shows a shot of the registration plate, which as ‘02’ on it, appearing to suggest the vehicle is 17 years old.
In the video he also refers to how the police were called, instead of a tow truck as Chris had wanted.
Chris added: “They seem to have the Police coming instead, although as we know the police will take quite a while to turn up for something like this if nothing is going wrong.”
There were multiple comments outlining support for Chris on his public Facebook post.
Graham Turnbull commented: “Let’s all ask First Yorkshire why they are delivering zero emissions buses in other UK cities, but not Sheffield.”
Sarah Deakin said: “Good luck Chris. So sorry we couldn’t stop (on way to an appointment) Hope backup arrives soon!”
Keith Deakin jokingly commented: “Bloody troublemaker!”
Caroline Mackenzie said: “Thanks for standing up for clean air in Nether Edge!”
Speaking today, Chris said that when bus chiefs turned up they “weren’t interested” in speaking to him and called the call to police a “waste of resources.”
He said: “Bus company refused to tow the bus and they called the police instead.
“They weren’t interested in talking to us which I think is very wrong.
“The police eventually turned up, for them to call the police was really a bad waste of resources.
“They asked them to carry checks on the bus and after five hours we said ok fair enough.”
South Yorkshire Police confirmed there were no arrests made.
A spokeswoman said: “We were made aware of a man standing in front of a bus yesterday afternoon. A PCSO attended the scene and the incident was resolved without any issues shortly afterwards.”
First South Yorkshire said the bus in question was investigated after the incident took place and passed all smoke tests.
Managing Director, Garry Birmingham “We’d like to provide reassurance on the safety of our vehicles and that we are committed to investing in vehicles with ultra-low-emissions that assist with improving air quality. As part of our 28-day inspection cycle, we do a recorded engine emissions test to DVSA standard on every vehicle.”
