19 May 2014

The Curse of the Mobile

The curse of the mobile phone strikes Plymouth Citybus  with this "News Item" from The Plymouth Herald:

An investigation is to be launched after an allegation a Plymouth bus driver rolled a cigarette as he drove with passengers in his vehicle. A passenger sitting in a car alongside the single-decked bus took footage of a Plymouth CityBus driver on a busy city road. The driver appears to take a piece of thin paper before fiddling with it in his lap while sitting in traffic. Full Story HERE Peter Oliver, commercial manager for the company, said: “We wholeheartedly condemn the use of mobile phones, smoking or rolling a cigarette while driving a vehicle. “It is absolutely unacceptable and there are robust procedures in place to deal with such behaviour.

IF the driver was doing what the car passenger suspected (its impossible to tell from the video footage) then clearly he is in trouble. It should be easy for the company to investigate as all(?) buses in the fleet have cctv which will give a much better view than we are getting.

You do have to wonder how would the people who filmed this like it if they were filmed by Citybus? Their buses are fitted with all round cctv so I am sure their cameras catch all sorts of bad driving by car drivers. You can imagine the uproar on the Herald website if Citybus started using their videos to 'shop' car drivers!

You only have to read back through all the stories about the councils camera cars to see how popular that is!

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10 comments:

  1. I wonder if this individual is also a Radio Devon listener, logging every lyric played by their DJ’s, if not perhaps that might keep them occupied too? It is no wonder that some bus drivers can react badly to a camera phone being pointed at their bus, I used to think they were just being unfriendly. I am now, sadly, beginning to understand now how they might feel!

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  2. No excuses really.

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  3. that is very true about citybus catch bad drivers and first buses has cammras two

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  4. My interpretation of the law is that whilst it's not illegal to roll a cigarette whilst driving(although not a sensible thing to do)it is however illegal to use a mobile phone(either for chatting,texting or taking pictures)whilst driving and this scenario does prove that two wrongs most certainly do not make a right!

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    1. Please clarify this comment - surely it was the "passenger" in the car taking the pictures/video not the driver.

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  5. Further to my post there is an interesting TV prog tonight which might be on interest to some:
    The Complainers: Episode 1: London transport - Tuesday 27 May, 9:00pm, Channel 4

    In this episode, we’re inside the complaints department of Transport for London. With over a million more people in the city than ten years ago, the city’s roads are fit to burst, and a new generation of complainers are turning up the heat.


    We’ll follow the back-and-forth between TfL and London’s super-complainers, including an obsessive tweeter, and a cyclist who deploys a strange array of tools to defend his position on the road, including seven bike-mounted cameras.


    At TfL, one call handler has built a special relationship with a persistent customer, and we meet a bus driver who’s sent on a course known as ‘the naughty boys club’.


    The Complainers - Channel 4 - Info - Press
    http://www.channel4.com/info/press/programme-information/the-complainers

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  6. wish i had a camera on my bus, i could catch hundreds of traffic infringemeents everyday, enthusiasts taking photos is brilliant, i find a lot of drivers, who are in the wrong lane ( i find those from outland road use the torpoint lane to go towards wolseley road the worst, by the speed camera, as i use the correct manouvre myself, they beep as if you cut them up, one car even chased me, got out took loads of photos, so i just smiled and said, you were in the wrong lane mate, he said i will report you to the police... i said please do, but you will get the points for not obeying the road signage... i heard no more) or the daily event of cars insisting on overtaking you as you indicate to pull away from a bus stop, they forget what the law is, as soon as a bus indicates to pull away, the bus has right of way, so all bus drivers, remember, indicate and pull out, the law is there to protect you, if you have to creep out and force them to stop, do so and at all other times, other traffic has a duty to let buses pull out.

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    1. Sorry but you're wrong regarding buses indicating to pull away from bus stops. Yes, it's a Highway Code rule (rule 223, was rule 198) but it's not a legal requirement. It's good sense and good practice to let a bus out but no-one is breaking the law or committing an offence if they don't (as explained in the introduction: http://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/read.html)
      http://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/road-users-requiring-extra-care---other-vehicles-219-to-225.html

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  7. More bus drivers would take their right of way if it were not for the paperwork involved. That is what separates professional drivers from the rest. AND I include taxi and minicab drivers amongst the rest.

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  8. You would need to show caution when pulling out and not do so as a right or you will have driven without due care. Indicating and pulling out could be seen as aggressive the Highway Code says:
    198: Buses, coaches and trams. Give priority to these vehicles when you can do so safely, especially when they signal to pull away from stops. Look out for people getting off a bus or tram and crossing the road.

    It also has sections on the traffic lights and the need to stop at red! There's good and bad drivers in all classes of licence. Courtesy and co-operation is the key. Keep safe

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