Another news story and another case where the bus industry is on the back foot.
I refer to Wednesday’s Echo article in which a two-year-old ended up in hospital with a swollen nose after he fell on his Transdev Yellow Bus journey. The allegation is that the driver took off before the family of one mum and three children were safely seated.
This raises a number of issues.
- Passengers are most at risk while standing or moving around the vehicle.
- This does not stop children from messing around and it doesn’t seem to have any impact on some parents who fail to control their children’s behaviour.
- We still allow standing passengers on service buses. If they are more vulnerable when standing, why? Yet, without the ability to load standing passengers, urban buses would seize up at peak periods.
- Setting off before passengers have found their seats is not an indication of a rude or intolerant driver, though passengers seem to think it is.
- Passengers have responsibilities e.g. to find a seat quickly and, as stated, to control children. Most (indeed many) drivers will show due consideration where passengers find it difficult to get to their seats easily.
- To what extent should a driver wait for passengers to get to their seats before restarting the journey? For years, it’s been custom & practice to pull away at the earliest opportunity. Realistically, to wait for *every* passenger to sit would cause unacceptable delays for *every* passenger.
- Timekeeping constraints are nothing new. Almost exactly 29 years to the day since Hants & Dorset operated its last bus with a conductor, I can still hear the cry ring out, “Hold very tight, please” followed immediately by two bells to single the driver to depart, and a prompt re-entry into traffic, as passengers moved down the bus.
- That said, we now live in a “no-win-no-fee” era. You used to grin & bear minor injuries on buses—but no longer.
- Like many operators, TYB recommends that passengers signal by the bell when they want to get off and remain seated till the bus stops. By publicising this, TYB is covered to some extent. How many passengers actually do this? Few, if any. Passengers accept that moving to the front as the bus approaches their stop is all part & parcel of their journey.
5 comments:
Whilst the operator has a 'duty of care' to operate a bus safely so too does the passenger. If a driver (or conductor) has to wait until every passenger is seated before starting the journey time would be extended beyond what is practical. Asking alighting passengers to remain in their seats until the bus has stopped does likewise, although I agree with you that an operator may feel covered from a liability point of view.
Vehicle design today is, in a number of respects, less user friendly than before. Here in London most double and single deckers have an area between the front doors and middle doors (most of our buses are dual doored) that is largely devoid of seating. This is to cater for one section of the community who were previously excluded from buses - those in wheelchairs and, by extension, children in buggies. It does, however, mean that there are few, if any, seats that are available without walking some distance and possibly also up a step or two. Due to the multiplicity of bodywork operated it is hard to generalise.
Many years ago I had a summer job with Cheltenham District Traction. People were practised in boarding quickly and taking a seat. They would climb onto the platform and then make their way inside or upstairs to seats that were only a short distance away. When approaching the stop where they wanted to get off they would ring the bell and make their way to the platform. Nobody fell off or hit themselves on seats or stanchions.
It is fair to say that the speed at which my Bristol KSW would move off in traffic was not the same as a bus of today. I have recently experienced moves from a stop into traffic that were uncomfortable because of high acceleration, and similarly with braking. In some sense modern buses, as with other road vehicles, have alot of power that requires experience and training to use. Under test or instruction, when the driver is concentrating, he or she may present themselves as capable drivers, but when all of the other pressures of modern driving come into play the ease with which a vehicle can accelerate or brake may bring lapses or even generate bad driving habits.
I feel that we need to get back to a situation where an individual's duty of care to themselves is at least equal to the provider of the service they are using.
"Jayden’s mum, Katie King, claimed the driver of the TransDev Yellow Bus service pulled away before her young family"
The reporter can't spell Transdev.
"Jayden screamed and screamed throughout the journey. The driver just carried on with his route."
How does he know that it's not just some other annoying, screaming toddler?
"“It wasn’t until we got off the bus that he asked if Jayden was all right. I said: ‘Can’t you see his face?’”"
To be honest, I would prefer the bus drivers of buses I am on to be looking forwards while they are driving so they don't crash.
Yet another stupid story by the Echo.
"Like many operators, TYB recommends that passengers signal by the bell when they want to get off and remain seated till the bus stops. By publicising this, TYB is covered to some extent."
I think that is debatable. In a sense, by saying that, TYB are implying that passengers moving around in a moving bus are 'at risk'. Modern buses generally have several grab rails or handrails (although I agree with the point made by the first anonymous contributor on this matter in respect of some vehicles), so surely it would be more advisable for the operator to instruct passengers to use the handrails, etc, provided when moving to and from their seats?
In other words, rather than tell people not to do something because it carries a risk, tell them how to do it safely. As has already been stated, the idea that buses could be operated with there never being instances of passengers moving around in a moving vehicle is impractical.
"Like many operators, TYB recommends that passengers signal by the bell when they want to get off and remain seated till the bus stops. By publicising this, TYB is covered to some extent."
What this says to me is that TYB recognise there's an issue when alighting so TYB should also recognise there's an issue when boarding. Doesn't the TYB recommednation therefore put them in a difficult position where a driver has started off before a passenger has found a seat?
As already intimated, this is indicative of a lack of people taking responsibility.
A bus is a moving vehicle. People using buses should remember this. Unfortunately cases like this are often met with an apology from the operator, small amount of compensation for a passenger and a disciplinary interview for the driver.
It was not that long ago that if someone fell over they would blame themselves. Now its the fault of someone else.
If you want the driver to wait for you to sit down, ask him/her, otherwise you can expect the bus to pull off once everybody is on board.
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