Frýdek-Místek bus driver calls police to remove barefoot female passenger

A strange scene unfolded on Thursday, September 17, at around 4:25 p.m. aboard a city bus on T. G. Masaryk Avenue in Frýdek-Místek, when the driver called the municipal police emergency line (156) to have a barefoot passenger removed from the vehicle.

According to Tomáš Zapletal, director of the Frýdek-Místek municipal police, the driver reported that the passenger was violating the conditions of carriage and refusing to leave the bus. It turned out that her refusal to transport the woman stemmed from hygiene concerns and, in the driver's view, safety reasons — the passenger had no shoes on. Zapletal also noted that the woman had "glassy" eyes, which led the driver to suspect she might be intoxicated. Whether she actually was remains unknown, as the patrol did not offer her a breathalyzer test — at least, officers made no mention of doing so.

The patrol simply verified the woman's identity and passed on the driver's request. The passenger then voluntarily got off the bus. The police chief stressed that no force was used — no coercive measures were taken, and the woman was not fined. She was merely informed that she could seek compensation from the carrier for any damages incurred.

Nothing in the rules bans barefoot passengers

It remains unclear why the municipal police agreed to the driver's request at all, since officers later confirmed that the conditions of carriage do not actually require passengers to wear shoes on the bus. Zapletal defended his officers, saying their job was to check the report, assess the situation, and take appropriate action. "They tried to resolve the situation on the spot without conflict," he said, dismissing any suggestion that the intervention was unlawful or discriminatory.

Asked whether bus drivers could now use the municipal police to remove any passenger at will, Zapletal said the matter cannot be framed that way: police are not obliged to automatically comply with every driver's request to exclude a passenger from a ride. "Nor is it up to them to interpret or enforce the contractual conditions of carriage — that is primarily a matter for the carrier," he stressed, adding that, by the same token, police cannot order a driver to keep transporting a passenger whom the driver refuses to carry over an alleged breach of the rules.

The municipal police themselves originally shared the curious story on social media, only to delete the post some time later. According to the director, deciding what to publish, edit, or remove on its own pages is entirely within the department's discretion.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz