If seats belts are fitted and many of the passengers are children then is the coach driver legally responsible for them?
waddy640:
The rules relating to the fitment and wearing of seatbelts are very complex and in some cases contradictory.As an example I have a coach that has seatbelts for the 57 passengers but does not nor does it require one for the driver.
Another point, the VOSA PSV Inspection Manual has 168 pages relating to the requirements for the MOT, 22 pages relating to the fitment and maintenance of seatbelts alone.
Just wondering waddy - What type/make of coach is it■■?
As the laws stands if a PCV is for the sole transportation of schoolchildren then it requires seatbelts to be worn and therefore must have them fitted.
If the same vehicle was used for transporting the general public in addition to those schoolchildren and was advertised as a public service, then it doesn’t require them to be fitted. This applies to “local” bus services, not express services.
Daz1970:
waddy640:
The rules relating to the fitment and wearing of seatbelts are very complex and in some cases contradictory.As an example I have a coach that has seatbelts for the 57 passengers but does not nor does it require one for the driver.
Another point, the VOSA PSV Inspection Manual has 168 pages relating to the requirements for the MOT, 22 pages relating to the fitment and maintenance of seatbelts alone.
Just wondering waddy - What type/make of coach is it■■?
It is a Bedford YMT of 1977 vintage.
Does not answer my Q - if they are fitted is the driver legally responsible for the children in the same way that a car driver is?
ROG:
Does not answer my Q - if they are fitted is the driver legally responsible for the children in the same way that a car driver is?
Common sense would say no, but the law may say otherwise.
ROG:
If seats belts are fitted and many of the passengers are children then is the coach driver legally responsible for them?
ROG:
Does not answer my Q - if they are fitted is the driver legally responsible for the children in the same way that a car driver is?
Getting on your high horse - yet the answer was right above 
I do several coach trips a year and being 65+ + as are quite a lot of my fellow passengers I have noticed that most of them do comply and use their seat belts and every driver as always issued the instructions to use seat belts. When we have done European trips the driver always repeats the instructions regarding using the seat belts when comming off of the ferry and informing the passengers of the very heavy fines which are in place in Europe.
cheers Johnnie
One aspect of not wearing a seat belt on a coach is this, if the coach were to rollover and a passenger not wearing a seat belt were to be thrown onto another passenger, who died as a result, then a charge of manslaughter could be a possibility.
Never worn one yet on a coach, but I only tend to go them 2-3 times a year with my Brass Band. The trips tend to be more of a social occasion (drinking, singing etc) than a journey, so they would cramp my ‘style’.
Rest assured if I am involved in a coach crash, the outcome will be my responsibility.
There’s a very good DVD for coach drivers to use & show their passengers. It’s available from CPT - the Confederation of Passenger Transport, it gives plenty of safety info. including wearing of seatbelts - in the style of a pre-flight safety film as shown by the airlines. Of course the coach needs to be fitted with DVD player but could enhance/re-enforce the driver’s announcement regarding wearing of belts - whoever the passenger group is.
GCR2ERF:
Never worn one yet on a coach, but I only tend to go them 2-3 times a year with my Brass Band. The trips tend to be more of a social occasion (drinking, singing etc) than a journey, so they would cramp my ‘style’.Rest assured if I am involved in a coach crash, the outcome will be my responsibility.
What a selfish attitude if your standing holding a can of lager on a coach doing 62 mph and it rolls over you will be thrown around like a pea in a jam jar injuring or possibly killing other passengers who have had the sense to wear their seat belt .Most fatalities on a roll over coach crash are found with the coach on top of them as they are thrown threw the coach window.
Speaking as a coach driver i have quite a high compliance regarding seatbelts. I find if i wear one most passengers seem to follow suit
Only ignorant people don’t wear seatbelts on coaches , I drive both and if you got thrown about in a crash and killed someone by falling on someone and you survived you need flogging and thrown in a dungeon! As the driver could get done! I knew of a driver over last few yrs on a French coach crash that got absolutely slated while carrying kids! Announcements done all ignored by kids and staff and when coach went off road the teachers trod on driver so did kids to get off to safety and ignored driver and he got blamed by ignorant Tossers who could of survived if wore a belt!!! And the accident wasn’t his fault!! And someone died who did not have a belt on!!
In any vehicle you could survive the impact of the crash but drown in your own blood when the rib cage punctures the vital organs.The lungs will fill with blood.
Passers by would have no clue you are bleeding internaly.
By the time anyone at the scene works out who has called 999,it is too late.
If you saw the scene in Saving private Ryan,when the group were in a field and attacked a radio mast bunker.
He drowned in his blood.Morphine shots took the pain away.
Mrs. Sidevalve drives buses for a living, both service and school runs.
As said above all dedicated school buses have to be fitted with 3-point belts. Wifey has to tell the kids to put the belts on, but whether they do or not it is up to the kids. Anyone who’s done school buses will know that today’s kids will just ignore an adult because it’s cool to do so, and school runs with secondary school-age kids don’t have escorts riding with them; the ultimate sanction of kicking the kid off the bus for being a disobedient little bugger will inevitably bring the parents suing the bus company for abandoning the poor little lamb. So the drivers can only advise; and my guess is that in the event of an accident that would have to suffice.
Sidevalve:
Mrs. Sidevalve drives buses for a living, both service and school runs.As said above all dedicated school buses have to be fitted with 3-point belts. Wifey has to tell the kids to put the belts on, but whether they do or not it is up to the kids. Anyone who’s done school buses will know that today’s kids will just ignore an adult because it’s cool to do so, and school runs with secondary school-age kids don’t have escorts riding with them; the ultimate sanction of kicking the kid off the bus for being a disobedient little bugger will inevitably bring the parents suing the bus company for abandoning the poor little lamb. So the drivers can only advise; and my guess is that in the event of an accident that would have to suffice.
Too true.
Can you imagine if the driver attempted to put the seatbelt on a child, the accusations would make them feel like they were part of Coronation Street 
Well at the end of the day it is quite obvious to most folk that it is a wise idea to use the safety belt. It is just a little bemusing how little regard some people show towards their own safety. I remember the first time I saw one of them mirrors on a Shell Oil Base site that had printed at the top & bottom of the mirror…‘You are looking at the person responsible for your own safety’ Pretty effective I thought!!
Funny how you don’t have to wear a belt on a train & they can cram as many in as they like , sitting standing, hanging , madness …
kemaro:
Funny how you don’t have to wear a belt on a train & they can cram as many in as they like , sitting standing, hanging , madness …
I daresay the railway is a bit safer than the roads however as you say folk are forced into trains all ways and the odd de-railment generally have serious injuries and mulitple deaths so your bang on mate.
Trains run in a controlled environment and the last fatal accident (excluding suicides) happened in 2007 due to faulty points. Train drivers are far more professional than drivers of road vehicles too which is why we (train drivers) are the only ones allowed to exceed 70 mph on a daily basis (emergency vehicles excluded)