Wheelchair user forced to drag himself up stairs on the platform of the railway station, stating that the staff refused help him for health reasons and safety policy.
Chris Nicholson, athlete and press secretary for myprotein sports brand, rode to refer to event in London on Friday when the incident took place at Milton Keynes Station.
former rugby player need to move to another side of Station for connecting train, but the elevator broke down, causing it to pull itself up stairs in 31S (88F) heat.
Nicholson said the staff refused help his use stairs, saying they told him they couldn’t help him because of “health and safety politicians and they will be on risk if they could help me.”
“I decided to get up stairs, how? Dragging my chair with one hand, push off one hand and picking my feet each step of in way!” He wrote in a post on Instagram. He described himself as “in agony and tears halfway up”.
Nicholson said another man saw him struggling and helped him carry the wheelchair before the assistant manager stepped in carry his bags.
“We in 2022, access should be a given, not a privilege,” Nicholson said. He named for change policy to support all together”, adding: “Things like this happens every day people with different kinds of disability.”
In the video also posted on Instagram, Nicholson spoke in in detail about why he shared his experience on social media. “People like myself who have different abilities to a capable person should have rights to access all amenities, like anyone more. It doesn’t matter if you in wheelchair if you on crutches – you should to be capable of access this,” he said.
” fact what people don’t make things easy available topics who from different walks of life, different abilities is wrong. fact that things don’t in place service for this is wrong fact what people treated differently also wrong”.
Nicholson, who It has more than 28000 followers on Instagram, said almost 3000 people wrote to him that they had a similar experience. “It’s just shocking,” he said.
An Avanti West Coast spokesman said: “We made aware of this incident and we are sorry that the customer experience.
“Since then we in contact with client – who arrived safely at the destination on Friday evening.
“We also keeping in touch with London North Western Railway – train operating Company responsible for Milton Keynes station management – while they investigate the circumstances of what’s happened.”
London North Western Railway declined to comment.
