The mother of a 12-year-old girl ordered off a bus and forced to walk home in the rain has every right to be angry and upset about the incident.

It's not surprising that Jennifer Mladenovic was distressed when her daughter Jodie and 11-year-old brother Mikhail arrived home two hours late and soaked to the skin. Any parent whose children are abnormally late will understand the sort of emotional turmoil and imagined fears she must have gone through.

It's especially worrying that this incident arose out of heavy-handed and irresponsible behaviour by a bus driver who should have known better. His "jobsworth" attitude in turfing the girl off the bus because he though she looked too old to pay a half fare placed Jodie and Mikhail at risk from both traffic and any potentially ill-intentioned strangers.

There always used to be a presumption that children should be given the benefit of the doubt in such situations, but it seems this driver felt it was more than his job was worth to risk waiving the few extra pence it would have cost the bus company, First Calderline.

It's true to say that nowadays children often look older than they are, but that is no excuse for the driver's behaviour.

The company's decision to hold an investigation and take steps to prevent such an incident happening again should be welcomed, but there must be a better system that all companies could adopt - even if it means having to go to the expense of issuing ID-card passes to all children. Better that than place any more of them at risk.