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It's a bit rich to blame the parents for wondering where the bus was, causing the company to ring the driver - it was 45mins late, after all!
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Sounds like the bus companies should have known better too. This used to be very common around Manchester but I've not seen it since the law on the matter became more clear. The CCTV cameras in the drivers cab may also have something to with it.
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I cant understand why people feel it is mandatory to answer a phone while driving or at any other time, you can always return the call later. It is ill mannered to answer a phone while speaking to someone, and start another conversation. If it happens when I am being served in a shop I walk out.
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Yeah I had that problem a few weeks ago. I left a bit late and every traffic light was against me. The friend I was going to meet rang me (she was not well at the time and was worried about her) so I pull up and park on a side road turn the engine off etc and call her back. She then says wondered where you had got to. I went mad and said I would have been there 5 minutes earlier if you had not rang me.
I just stick my phones in the boot now so I don't have that problem.
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so I pull up and park on a side road turn the engine off etc and call her back. >>
You can buy a corded hands-free attachment for your mobile phone for about £2 on the webnet thing.
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But to only get a £70 fine when the max penalty is £1k - especially as being a bus driver, he was putting the lives of all his passengers at risk.....
1. He should have been fined more
2. The bus company should be fined for making the call in the first place, since they must have known, since they didn't receive a call to the contrary from the driver or emergency services, that he was probably driving.
3. Why, if the bus company routinely contacts bus drivers by mobile phone, didn't they provide a hands-free set in th ebus?
Our company has a "do not talk on a mobile phone if driving" policy - even if it's hands-free. We no longer allow even a hands-free to be installed in company cars, and official warnings can be given to anyone who answers a phone while driving.
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No need to call him - mobile phone tracking software is available for very little money. The Council should terminate the contract with the bus company.
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No need to call him - mobile phone tracking software is available for very little money. The Council should terminate the contract with the bus company.
He was driving for a private school.
It's all very well saying cancel it but I know the council service in our area was in deep trouble as they couldn't get anybody to bid for it.
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An admirable company which should be publicly named and commended.
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This post should have been appended to that of Grumpyscot above! At present it looks as if I am commending the bus company.
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This post should have been appended to that of Grumpyscot above!
It has - www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=t&t=76...5
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I wonder whether the parents who told police have ever committed a Road Traffic Offence themselves. Have they ever answered a mobile or texted as they drove? ever accelerated when lights go amber? ever done a left or right or U turn where not allowed?
I have no sympathy for the driver at all, as he had apparently been warned before. However, I am depressed by others willingness to get on their high horse as if they were pure as driven snow and indignantly grass others up. We have seen it on this forum often enough "I saw a man run a red light, I got his number, shall I report him to police"?
I am not pure, I sometimes do things I shouldn't AND hypocritically get indignant about others behaviour. But, I would never take it to the authorities (obviously unless it was for something really serious like rape, murder, gbh etc)
Mobile phones are the curse of society. I have one, but I curse it more than love it. It has become a necessity and we are unable to let go of it. As the song goes, "The public wants what the public gets"
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Excellent post tack. You are rational and honest and not a PITA.
"The public wants what the public gets"
... including the government it deserves.
:o}
Edited by Lud on 16/07/2009 at 16:17
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"Have they ever answered a call or texted while they drove"
A huge difference between the two... frankly, a short call on a quiet road doesn't bother me but the idea of someone texting (which I see all too often) scares me. Hands + eyes completely off the road.
I never understood why they banned mobile phones when it's legal for hundreds of thousands of people set fire to a piece of paper on their cars on a daily basis, get high on the smoke, and drive one-handed.
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"a short call on a quiet road doesn't bother me"
But, the law says otherwise, there are no shades of grey. If I used my phone on a quiet piece of road, how can I possibly condemn anyone else using their phone to the law? Who am I to make that judgement? My point (and I think it is valid) is that there are too many people in this world deciding that they don't like a particular thing and are willing to dob someone else to the law, despite their own failings. We have seen it time and again on this forum, people choose which laws they wish to obey accordig to their own particular needs at a particular time.
Let he/she who is without sin cast the first stone. By all means have a moan about other people, but for goodness sake, recognise your own failings. I am borderline, so when I pop my clogs I don't know whether it is going to be a fork in my derriere and slow roasting over an open fire, or cherubs feeding me brown ale, pork pies and pork scratchings.
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As I was going up the M40 yesterday, an artic loaded with bricks joined at J14, and the driver was reading a novel whilst driving!!!!
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It is much more likely that an informant is not a mobile user whilst driving, than a habitual abuser. In this case it was an 11 year old who captured the driver out of control. In any case, its not a defence to say other people are not caught doing the same idiotic, deliberate flouting of the law.
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But the point here is, doesn't matter what the parents do while they drive. The point is that they have entrusted the care and welfare of their offspring to a professional who should be more responsible especially as he as a bus full of other people's kids too.
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Quite. Despite what we might think someone who's job it is to drive a vehicle (whether on land, sea or air) which carries other human beings has a greater responsibility to protect the people in their care.
Whilst I do not condone smoking, using phones, texting whilst driving I accept that some motorists will do it... but I do not expect someone in his position to do any of them, his prime concern should be for the safety of the people in his bus, not who was calling him.
Edited by b308 on 17/07/2009 at 10:18
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cut up by a bus driver the other day... why? he was following his mate in front by going through a red light on a big busy roundabout... worse of all he was driving round a bus full of young kids.
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