Greyhound Canada apologizes to mother of girls left stranded overnight in B.C.
Vanessa Aubichon says the company offered to reimburse the cost of the tickets and more
Greyhound Canada has apologized to the mother of two girls who were left stranded at a 24-hour gas station in rural B.C. in the middle of the night while travelling home.
Vanessa Aubichon, whose daughters are 12 and 16, says she spoke with Greyhound vice-president Peter Hamel on Tuesday evening.
"He apologized," she said. "He's trying to get to the bottom of it. He's working really hard on the situation."
The sisters were en route from visiting their mother in Prince George, B.C., and returning home to their father in Sylvan Lake, Alta., last week. The driver of the bus they transferred onto in Valemount told them their tickets had expired, the bus was full and they would have to wait until the morning for another one.
"I can't even wrap my head around ... the fact nobody even contacted us," Aubichon said. "They didn't say, 'What's your parents' number? Can we get ahold of them?' Because they were going to reroute them 23 hours out of their way."
Aubichon says Greyhound offered to pay back the cost of the tickets and gas money for the family friend who set out in the night to find the girls.
She says Hamel also told her he would ensure the two girls are supervised on their next trip — but Aubichon said her daughters will never ride a Greyhound bus again.
Greyhound previously said the girls were never left alone and the company's personnel were in constant contact with them throughout the night.
The company told CBC it will not be publicly releasing an internal review into the incident, saying it was a matter between Greyhound and the customer.
In response to the incident, B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone said the province's Passenger Transportation Act has a number of provisions that prevent motor carriers such as Greyhound from leaving passengers, particularly children, in unsafe locations.
Penalties range from fines to licence suspension.