A bus driver in Chengdu is outraged after a belligerent foreigner grabbed his steering wheel and started pressing buttons after missing his bus top, putting himself and other passengers in danger.

Yang Tao, a bus driver with Chengdu Dongxin Public Buses, says he was shocked by the man’s behavour. “He has no sense of safety awareness at all,” he said.

The incident happened last Friday (August 22) after a foreigner boarded his bus. Yang describes the passenger as around 30 years old, slim, and with blond hair. “A classic European-American look,” Yang said.

The first sign of trouble happened the second the foreigner boarded. He only paid 2 mao rather than the 2 yuan fare, and then pretended not to understand Putonghua when the driver protested.  ”If he pretends not to understand me, then there’s nothing I can do,” Yang said. “The only thing left to do is to continue with the bus route.”

Yang said everything was fine until the foreigner came to the front because he missed his stop. The passenger wanted Yang to pull over and let him off. “I need to take care of the entire bus, so I rejected his request.” Instead, Yang tried using English by saying “Next.”

Unfortunately, the foreigner didn’t take it well. “I need to get off, and if you don’t allow me to get off then you are wrong!” he said.

The foreigner came over to the driver’s position, and started randomly pushing buttons on the dashboard in order to open the bus doors. Then he then tried to wrestle control of the steering wheel away from Yang while the bus was moving.

That wasn’t all: after finally reaching the next stop, the foreigner gave the bus driver a parting shot to the head. Yang was, to put it mildly, not impressed:

He was very impolite, and without any safety awareness at all. In the end, he hit me on the head. Even though his head strike did not cause any pain, he was still very insulting.

Yang said people from developed countries should have a better awareness of safety.

Chengdu may have a problem with foreigners behaving badly on public transit; another visitor was caught behaving poorly in this video.

Photos: Xinhuanet