Congratulations to Metroline’s Ion Dinu, winner of the ‘Actions above and beyond the call of duty’ Award at the 2018 London Bus Awards for his response to a customer in distress.
On 25 June, Driver Dinu was driving on the 332 route when he noticed that a female travelling alone was crying. When trying to find out why the woman was in distress, Driver Dinu realised that she did not speak English, and wasting no time he called Lee Jackson, CentreComm Operations Manager via a code red call on the iBus radio and asked for assistance. Lee knew that his colleague, Swinder Sethi, Real Time Passenger Information Officer spoke Hindi and Punjabi so he asked her to assist him.
Lee asked Driver Dinu if he could take his phone number so that Swinder could speak to the passenger, Driver Dinu obliged and after talking with the passenger via Driver Dinu’s mobile phone, they noticed that woman seemed confused and wanted to see her mother in Luton. It was at this point that they decided to call the police to assists this vulnerable person.
Just as the police arrived, CentreComm received a missing persons call from the police looking for an 82 year old Indian female in the Harrow Road area that was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Calling Driver Dinu back on his mobile phone, CentreComm spoke to the police officers on scene. It appeared that the female on Dinu’s bus was the missing person.
Commenting on this positive conclusion, Lee says “If it hadn’t been for Driver Dinu’s quick thinking and swift cooperation with CentreComm, we may not have had such a happy outcome for this woman. Driver Dinu’s actions in this situation are great examples of helping one of our customers in need. We can’t thank Driver Dinu enough for his assistance. He’s a credit to himself, Cricklewood Garage and Metroline.”
“Knowing there was a positive outcome for our customer is a great relief and we were all pleased that this ended the way it did. It really shows that no matter how busy things get for a driver, they have the ability to make a massive impact and difference for people’s lives, every day, every journey. Knowing Mr Ion Dinu and the kind of person he is and his caring and professional attitude, it came as no surprise to anyone at the garage that he was the driver involved, he is a credit to our garage and we are proud of him, especially in this instance where his actions made a real difference and we are very proud of him for receiving this award,” said Garage Manager Rodolfo Brusa.
