A French-speaking Belgian girl fell out of a De Lijn bus following an incident with an "anti-Francophone" and "racist" driver, La Dernière Heure reports.
The 19-year-old girl, referred to only as 'Sarah', lives in Liedekerke, just west of Brussels in the province of Flemish Brabant.
While commuting to her student job in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon, 14 June, Sarah reportedly hopped on a De Lijn bus and greeted the driver in French. Horror struck three stops later when, while attempting to disembark, she realised the bus doors did not open.
"I rang to get off at the station, but the driver didn't open the doors," she said. "I told myself that he may have forgotten so I headed to the front of the bus because he had stopped to pick someone up and the front doors had opened."
As she was getting off, the driver restarted the bus with the doors still wide open, causing Sarah to fall to the ground outside. By the time she had picked herself up, in tears, the bus was already far away.
"This is what makes me say that it is clearly a racist and anti-Francophone act," she said. "I felt humiliated. You can't not respect someone like that."
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Sarah later made her connecting train to Brussels, but by the time she arrived in the capital, the pain had become unbearable. She then headed to Saint-Jean's Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a broken elbow, several lesions and a hematoma on her hip.
Following the incident, Sarah contacted De Lijn, who recommended that she get in touch with the company's compensation department. Sarah has also filed an official complaint with the police as she "may not be the only victim of this driver."
Contacted by DH, De Lijn said that the driver has been working for the company for a long time without incident and that it must receive additional documentation from Sarah before taking action.
"These documents are necessary to follow up on these reports," De Lijn said. "Based on these documents, a conversation will take place with the driver to see if he is aware of this incident and what his version of events is. Until this conversation has taken place, we will not be able to make any further statements about this event."
Sarah has reportedly not taken the bus service since the incident.
