Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Video: TfL investigating as cyclist films bus driver placing bets on mobile

Arriva London also looking into footage captured on Ludgate Hill on Monday evening

Transport for London (TfL) and bus operator Arriva London are investigating footage posted to Twitter by a cyclist that showed a bus driver apparently using an online betting app on his smartphone while at the wheel of his bus on a busy street in the heart of the capital.

Captured on Ludgate Hill on the evening of Monday 5 September, the video shows the cyclist challenging the driver, who dismisses his concerns, over illegally using a handheld mobile phone while driving.

“Are you placing your bets while driving a bus?” he asks the driver.

“So you’re betting, and driving a bus with passengers? You’re out of your mind!”

When the driver protests that he’s doing nothing wrong, he’s challenged again: “You’re betting on football and driving your bus – are you out of your mind?”

With the bus driver continuing to insist that there’s nothing wrong with him using his phone at the wheel, the person recording replies: “Every time I cycle my life is in danger because of drivers like you.”

TfL said via its Bus Alerts Twitter feed that it would investigate.

Arriva London, the operator of the bus, is also looking into the incident.

TfL figures cited by Tom Kearney on his Safer Oxford Street blog in July show that in 2015/16, London buses were involved in more than 27,000 collisions, 580 of those involving pedestrians and 258 in which a cyclist was involved.

Mr Kearney himself was left in a coma after being hit by a bus on Oxford Street shortly before Christmas 2009, and is now a highly active road safety campaigner.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

14 comments

Avatar
kitsunegari | 7 years ago
0 likes

The only appropriate action Arriva can take is to sack the driver and report him to the Police. Whether it will happen or not is another matter.

Avatar
kil0ran | 7 years ago
0 likes

Quite apart from the road safety issue, I'd get fired if I was caught betting on company time

Avatar
IanW1968 | 7 years ago
2 likes

Given their drivers have deliberately tried to hit me on several occasions, I dont think increasing the chances of accidentally doing it will bother them much. 

Avatar
CarlosFerreiro | 7 years ago
1 like

Try and get the HSE interested in their lack of safe working systems that don't allow them to identify the driver? 

Avatar
vonhelmet | 7 years ago
1 like

They won't identify the driver. They'll say they don't know who was driving the bus. Obviously bollocks, but what can you do?

Avatar
georgee | 7 years ago
3 likes

Nothing will happen, nothing! Unless the guy crushed a pedestrian then maybe something but only maybe. Just look at that c*nt jailed today. Arriva will just have a laugh in the office, maybe cause their PR advisor to submit a few invoices and then they'll get back to doing nothing while TfL happily ignore the whole thing and push it back on Arriva. 

Avatar
dottigirl replied to georgee | 7 years ago
5 likes
georgee wrote:

Nothing will happen, nothing! Unless the guy crushed a pedestrian then maybe something but only maybe. Just look at that c*nt jailed today. Arriva will just have a laugh in the office, maybe cause their PR advisor to submit a few invoices and then they'll get back to doing nothing while TfL happily ignore the whole thing and push it back on Arriva. 

Yep. This.

And I'm fucking fed up of it.  2

Avatar
A V Lowe | 7 years ago
1 like

Class D vocational licence - and Conduct of Bus Drivers ...(&c) Regulations 1990 (SI 2015)  Technically I guess section 4 which has (since 1936) made mobile phone use illegal for bus drivers (forward thinking legislation then!).  Standard RTA legislation also applies.

No need for Court appearance Traffic Commissioner can revoke Class D licence for poor repute/conduct.

Rather than shout, driver is obliged to give details to any person reasonably requiring them Conduct Regs Section 5, or a Police Officer.  Really a pity that the rule requiring a bus driver to display their PSV licence at all times lapsed in 1960's then you only need to photograph the licence badge.

Bus operator details in 1" block lettering on left side of bus (legal requirement)

If driver resigns it make life easy all round - no sacking on his work history, no risk of the company getting hit post-sacking for any unfair dismissal claims (paperwork greatly simplified - all happy!)  You may recall that the driver of the Glasgow Bin Lorry worked this way to cover his medical issues, as unlike a masters certificate, pilot's or train driver's licence which has a record of every flight or voyage you've made, a driving licence carries no such history.

 

Avatar
CarlosFerreiro | 7 years ago
4 likes

I wonder if the HSE might (maybe) be interested in this case? 

I know that they don't like to overlap with the Police, even where the legislation would allow, but if you were to emphasize the Police can handle the traffic offenses and that your HSE concern was with the corporate duties....... Company processes/monitoring/training/duty of care to passengers/lack of follow up once reported to them(if that's the case), maybe particularly with the recent case mentioned above and the high price lack of action there.

Avatar
Leviathan | 7 years ago
3 likes

Normally this sort of thing is fine until he kills someone:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-37283994

about par for this country, 7 strikes and you are out.

Avatar
Gourmet Shot | 7 years ago
5 likes

wouldn't bother.....bored reporting 'First Bus' drivers...all that happens is a standard letter 2 months later saying we pride ourselves........serious matter..........investigate........blah blah blah. With hard evidence I would go straight to the Police

Avatar
burtthebike | 7 years ago
9 likes

Frankly, that driver is literally insane, should never be allowed to drive again, let alone a bus.  The bus company has to sack him immediately, followed by prosecution, and incarceration at her majesty's pleasure and a lifetime ban.

To be honest, driving and using a mobile may be illegal, but it is now so frequent that it has become unremarkable.  After the death caused by the eight times caught van driver, the law has to be changed with immediate loss of licence for a minimum of a year, with a second offence attracting a lifetime ban, with no appeals for hardship.

Avatar
gb901 | 7 years ago
7 likes

Good god - I cant believe that the bus driver was so adamant he was doing no wrong? How is a person so moronic in such, or any, employment? Mind you I expect he wont be for long and can also soon expect a tap on the shoulder from the boys in blue of the MET!

Avatar
pockstone replied to gb901 | 7 years ago
6 likes
gb901 wrote:

 a tap on the shoulder from the boys in blue of the MET!

Indeed. Forget TfL and Arriva. This is, first and foremost a matter for the rozzers.  Suspend him & then he can get sacked and lose his PSV license (permanently) after he's been prosecuted.

Latest Comments