maestegboy:
Most old coaches out there are sheds!
This happened to a innocent driver, he still got found guilt tho
How on earth can you be found guilty of dangerous driving for what is a construction and use offence?
bazza123:
Don’t forget your grey Farah trousers, tasseled shoes and white socks!Don’t forget, if driving a manual coach, the gear lever should have a ridiculously long throw between gears
The ability not to crack your head on the body as you stow the suitcases, a good selection of spare pens (without lids) and one of those clip on black little fans which is never switched on, are all a must too
If travelling with kids on a school trip, grit your teeth as you clock a teacher rushing to the back with a bucket and paper towels as some poor kid yaks up their packed lunch in the stifling, exhaust laden heat
Sorry Bazza, those strides should be “shiny grey Farahs” and it’s also mandatory to have a packet of Embassy with at least two or three half smoked ones in there, waxy unhealthy complexion and walk with, yes, a limp.
Oh, and a mullet.
maestegboy:
Most old coaches out there are sheds!
This happened to a innocent driver, he still got found guilt tho
Section 2A(2) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (as amended) reads:
A person is also to be regarded as driving dangerously … if it would be obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving the vehicle in its current state would be dangerous.
“Danger of injury to any person” fulfils the definition of dangerous via section 2A(3). The section 2A definition of dangerous driving applies equally to the section 1 (causing death by dangerous driving) and section 2 (dangerous driving) offences.
There is no defence of driving for an employer whose vehicle is dangerous. The safeguard against a driver would did not stand a fair chance of knowing that the vehicle was dangerous is that the dangerous fault has to be obvious to a competent driver who is acting in a careful manner before the existence of the dangerous fault amounts to dangerous driving. There is a lesser offence of using a vehicle in a dangerous condition under section 40A of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (as amended) for which the mere existence of a dangerous fault is sufficient for conviction.
In this case, VOSA found 9 potentially dangerous defects on the coach, three of which related to the emergency door, and the owner of the coach firm was convicted of aiding and abetting dangerous driving. Both the driver and the owner received suspended prison sentences.
I have a degree of sympathy for the driver. He was unlikely to know as much about the maintenance history of the coach as his employer did. However, the emergency door is part of PCV walk round checks. It seems difficult to believe that an emergency door that was capable of dumping a 13 year old boy onto a motorway carriageway, seemingly without it being deliberately opened by the boy, and in which VOSA subsequently found three dangerous defects in could have been missed had diligent walk round checks taken place.
If you take a vehicle into use, you take responsibility for its condition. Had the boy died as a result of falling out of the emergency exit, the driver may well have gone to prison for causing death by dangerous driving.
Both parents were on that coach 
! Yet their son aged 13 wasn,t wearing a seatbelt!
No way is the driver guilty
Yet the jury found him guilty.
The owner of the company knew the bus was a shed- he,s guilty
As has been mentioned, checking the emergency door is part of the walk round check on a PCV. I check that it opens and closes properly from the inside and that an alarm sounds when it is open, I always end the check by giving the door a good shove - usually with my foot.
I once found a door that failed the last part and reported it to the workshop, I was told “we’ll fix it as soon as it comes back”
To which I replied “who’s taking it out like that?” and was immediately allocated a different bus. I work for a firm which generally keeps on top of maintenance, on this occasion the chap I spoke to needed a very gentle reminder of what’s acceptable and what isn’t, we all have a personal responsibility. If I had taken that bus out and lost a kid out the emergency exit, it would have been my fault as well as the workshop/company.
It appears that this driver has made a mistake or an error of judgement in either not doing a check or failing to take appropriate action upon finding a serious fault and has been found guilty.
He has gotten away with it very lightly because no one died.
Socketset:
bazza123:
Don’t forget your grey Farah trousers, tasseled shoes and white socks!Don’t forget, if driving a manual coach, the gear lever should have a ridiculously long throw between gears
The ability not to crack your head on the body as you stow the suitcases, a good selection of spare pens (without lids) and one of those clip on black little fans which is never switched on, are all a must too
If travelling with kids on a school trip, grit your teeth as you clock a teacher rushing to the back with a bucket and paper towels as some poor kid yaks up their packed lunch in the stifling, exhaust laden heat
Sorry Bazza, those strides should be “shiny grey Farahs” and it’s also mandatory to have a packet of Embassy with at least two or three half smoked ones in there, waxy unhealthy complexion and walk with, yes, a limp.
Oh, and a mullet.
The-Snowman:
Provided no passengers then yes you can.
Cat D is for buses that are automatics. For drive manual coaches you need a cat C but to take passengers you also need a pcv license.
WTF??
D is buses, simple. There will be a code if auto only.
C is HGV rigid, ■■■■ all to do with buses
I drive buses more often than I use my C license for rigid lorries. It appears that the rules have changed recently.It used to be legal for a lorryist to drive a bus in a voluntary capacity but that has been stopped.I cantsee how anemergency exit has just swung open without any one having interfered with the door handle.I remember watching an inspector examining an old shed when he opened the emergency door it fell off.I think that would have been a prohibition that time.