AN elderly woman walked a mile along a dangerous road without pavements after a Stagecoach bus driver allegedly 'ignored' her request to get off in Littledean.

Flo Fussell, 81, had been shopping in Cinderford last Tuesday when she jumped onboard the 30/31 bus to Gloucester. As she approached Littledean Primary School, she pressed the buzzer to get off above the jail.

Panic set in when she realised the driver wasn't slowing down and she continued to press the buzzer before shouting at the driver to stop – allegedly he said he 'couldn't' and dropped her off outside the Greyhound pub.

Weighed down with three carrier bags, she reached as far as Denton's Corner when a relative, who is a paramedic, was driving past and stopped to help.

She said: "I asked the bus driver to 'please stop' and he said he couldn't and carried on towards Popes Hill. I pressed the buzzer three times in total. Once he passed my stop, other passengers were shouting to the driver.

"I got off the bus and walked back up the hill which has no pavements and is a fast piece of road. I just kept crying and cut my arm on a thorn bush and became entangled in brambles.

"Fortunately a relative saw me and picked me up. I was out of breath and as white as a sheet. He is adamant I

wouldn't have got home without falling, passing out or worse.

"This is the second time the same driver has failed to stop – last time he dropped me off at Denton's Corner, just below the jail. I've been catching the bus every Tuesday for years. What upsets me the most is he didn't even say sorry as I got off. That road is dangerous even for a youngster to walk."

Managing director for Stagecoach West, Rupert Cox said: "We're currently speaking with both the passenger and the driver to look into how this happened and, while we understand everyone is human and mistakes might get made from time to time, we also take our service levels very seriously.

"Our whole ethos is about providing the best service and making things more convenient for our passengers, which our drivers are at the forefront of, so our top priority is to correct this in any way we can and make it up to the passenger."