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news
Harlow texting bus driverVideo: Bus driver sacked after being filmed apparently using mobile by helmet-cam cyclist
A bus driver filmed by a helmet-cam-equipped cyclist apparently using a mobile phone has been sacked.
According to the Harlow Star, the Roadrunners Coaches vehicle was filmed in the Seymours area of Harlow on September 11. The bus was moving and had passengers on board at the time.
The company initially said its managers believed the driver was holding a ticket module and so would take no action against him.
However, according to a spokeswoman for Roadrunners a later review of the evidence led to a decision to sack the driver, who will not fight the decision.
“He told us that it was a module but he shouldn’t be [holding] that while driving anyway,” she said.
A spokesman for Essex Police said: “Enquiries are continuing and we have served a notice on the company to identify the driver.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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54 comments
No. I'd actually agree with you. I'm not happy at the idea of someone losing their job.
I'm also not happy at the profileration of cameras recording bloody everything, everywhere all the time.
On the other hand it seems like a smart move to have one in your car or on your bike to gather evidence... always assuming your not someone blindly committing a crime.
To all people claiming that cyclists are just as bad.
Maybe they are, maybe not. It depends where you live and how much time you spend driving and cycling.
The fundamental difference between motorists and cyclists behaving badly is the potential consequences of their actions.
An idiot cyclist, however smug, mindless, rude or reckless is unlikely to injure or kill anyone other than themselves. Deaths by dangerous cycling are extremely rare and I've never heard about any driver killed by a cyclist...
An idiot driver however, travelling in his +1 tonne steel box at much higher speeds can take someone's life in a second, as we've seen so many times...
No matter how annoyed you may be with (fellow) cyclists please don't compare one with another.
to be honest I'm just fed up of entitled idiots. Whether they're driving a car, van, bus, riding a bike or even a pedestrian - I just wish people would stop being idiots.
A cyclist came speeding round a blind corner the wrong way and I had to effectively endo not to hit him. I got a load of abuse off him even though he was in the wrong. Idiot.
Last week a car driver pulled out of a residential street onto a main road and missed me by inches. I get the middle finger and a load of abuse. Idiot.
People coasting around town on bikes running red lights - why don't you just try putting a bit more effort in so that you can obey the law and get a bit fitter at the same time whilst still getting where you're going as quickly? Idiots.
Cars driving through traffic calming at you when you have priority...pedestrians stepping out into a main road without looking or worse seeing a bike then walking out into the road having seen you and thinking it's ok because you're only riding a bike... I just don't understand what's happening in this country. There just seems to be so many idiots it's painful.
Why are there so many idiots? why?
If you think that is dangerous ...
Have a look at this video driver in Canada (City: Ottawa)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz1rO7wUSYg
And no, he wasn't fired. It was his first time !
[[[[ Population density? And in, I hear, January 2014, 29 million more East Europeans will be eligible for UK residency. Guess which British city will be first choice for most of those that choose to exercise that right...if you think road conditions are bad now, just wait.
P.R.
PhilRuss I live in Bristol which has a very high population of Eastern Europeans (mainly Polish) and they aren't the worst by far.
To compound my earlier point 10 minutes ago a woman decided to turn left across me as I was on a junction. Evasive action taken but compounded by the fact the car behind her was a police car. The police promptly did nothing about it.
Just so many idiots.
I shouted, "Look out," to one idiot sending a text on his mobile as he wobbled down the road with one hand on his bars as I rode home last night. He was trundling along in the gutter, just the place for him to pick up some glass in his tyres. He barely even looked up from his mobile as I shouted. I presume he was watching the edge of the road out of the corner of his eye to make sure he didn't stray in either direction.
There are idiots on two wheels and on four as well, like the moron in a Range Rover running a red light I also encountered and who cut across my path and that of the person in the car alongside me as we pulled away from the lights. I could see him mouthing the predictable obscenity in response to the chorus from me and the person in the car next to me.
Use any evidence you can to crack down on poor road use, bicycle, car, truck, bus or whatever. It is anti social behaviour and it is not acceptable. The only way people will learn is if they get a letter in the post informing them of the fine or points on their licence. And if they get the sack, that's tough, but it's their own fault.
Vocational licence holder and Conduct Regulations apply to him (use of mobile phones by bus drivers has been illegal since before mobile phones were invented) bus drivers, by law, should only be driving, when bus is in motion, No reading, or talking to anyone without good reason - nem con
Are you trying to be deliberately ironic there Matt - without a driving licence a bus driver is somewhat unemployable
+1
I have often said that if the police issued every regular commuter a goPro with the amount of fixed penalties that they could issue it would pay for the cameras in no time.
So what if they also pick up bike riders behaving illegaly? Equality for all. Let us be quite clear, just as the minority of drivers are fools, so there is a minority of cyclists who are also. But thanks to perception bias you see the bad behaviour and not the good. Hence you don't ever see a sensible Audi driver...
One of the common gripes that gets levelled at cyclists is that they are all red light jumping and if these members of our community were made to stop at these, just as we want cars out of our ASLs then it might generate more sympathy with our friends in their metal boxes.
If a cyclist is texting while riding they are risking their own lives.
if a driver of a motor car or bus or HGV is texting they are risking the lives of their passengers and those around them. It is not the same thing.
It's a shame he's lost his job, but I think there's only one person to blame for that and it's not the guy who reported him.
Also IMO the suggestion that it's a disgrace that he's been sacked seems to shore up the idea that it's just one of those little things everyone does and there shouldn't be any real consequences to it. It implies that this standard of driving is still socially acceptable, and we as a society need to decide whether it is or not. If it isn't, there need to be significant consequences to doing it until people get it through their heads, same as drink driving.
So, to summarise:
Dicks ride bikes.
Dicks drive cars.
Dicks drive buses.
Dicks use mobile phones.
etc, etc...
Such is the state of modern society. I ain't expecting it to change any time soon.
Also IMO the suggestion that it's a disgrace that he's been sacked seems to shore up the idea that it's just one of those little things everyone does and there shouldn't be any real consequences to it. It implies that this standard of driving is still socially acceptable, and we as a society need to decide whether it is or not. If it isn't, there need to be significant consequences to doing it until people get it through their heads, same as drink driving.[/quote]
+ 1
no one should have ANY sympathy for a PROFESSIONAL driver who lost their job because they were using a mobile phone while driving, which is ILLEGAL.
he knew the rules and took a risk by breaking them.
he not only risked his safety, but 50 passengers safety and any other road users (and pedestrians) he came anywhere near!
IDIOT
I'd actually agree with all that you said Chuck.
There, fixed that for you.
Living in Derby I see very little bad riding, but then again most drivers are happy to give you enough space and wait to pass.
Most of the bad driving /riding seems to emanate out of London, can I assume people there are just far to self important to give a s**t about other people ?
As 90% of cyclists are also drivers(statistic pulled out of the air) can we not just say that it is drivers who are all idiots it is just their choice of transport that varies ?
I'm confused. Do you agree with cameras or not?
Yes and no.
I think their proliferation is in general bad for society. I don't like the erosion of relative anonymity in the public sphere.
On the other hand, given this is happening, it's like any other arms race: you may as well arm yourself.
If I ruled the world, they wouldn't be allowed for anyone. (Un)fortunately I don't...
Sorry Jova
Rational Dave is not me. Quite frankly using a mobile whilst on the road is a no no. That inludes driving, riding a motobike, cycling, skateboarding roller skating and any other means of transport.
Therefore you cannot claim £10.
Regards
Freespirit
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