Crying at school

135 euros! “Bus sheriff” fines schoolgirl (11)

The pupil wanted to pay, the ticket inspector wanted to collect money from her parents.(Bild: zVg)

Because she forgot her ID, a bus inspector in Villach hands a schoolgirl a ticket for 135 euros.

As she does every day, the eleven-year-old gets on the Kärntner Linien school bus at the bus stop in Villach shortly after 7am. It is a whole two stops before the secondary school pupil has to get off again in Landskron. When the door opens, the (first) shock: she can't find her annual ticket. "No problem, get on" - the friendly regular bus driver knows the girl and knows that she is not a cheeky fare dodger.

Reassured that she will still make it to school on time, the eleven-year-old stands in the aisle. Seconds later, the next shock: "Ticket please" - a total of two ticket inspectors from the contracted security company Securitas set their sights on the schoolgirl. With a guilty conscience and fear, the eleven-year-old apologizes for the second time - and immediately takes her five euros in snack money out of her school bag.

The chauffeur naturally let the pupil ride along - but the inspector wanted to collect the money from her parents.(Bild: zVg)

"Daughter went to school crying"
To pay for the 2.60 euro ticket for her two-stop journey. But the ticket inspector refused to accept it. "No, you'd better buy an ice cream with it," was his supposedly nice reaction. He pulled out a ballpoint pen and pressed a ticket for 135 euros into the eleven-year-old's hand. For comparison: the annual student ticket costs 19.60 euros. "My daughter came to school crying. Since then, she no longer dares to travel alone on the bus," the mother told "Krone".

"We would like to sincerely apologize for the behaviour of the Securitas employee and his lack of tact. This approach is not acceptable! We will definitely not tolerate this and will address it - so that something like this does not happen again in the future! It goes without saying that the fine is invalid," assures Roland Fercher from the Carinthian transport company.