Bus drivers must keep concentration on road (From Basingstoke Gazette)
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Bus drivers must keep concentration on road
10:50am Friday 4th January 2013 in Letters
Sir.–As someone whose sight deteriorated to such an extent that I could not distinguish bus numbers, I can relate to the problem that partially-sighted people have with buses.
However, for Eleanor Bullimore, of the RNIB, to suggest that the driver be asked to check with partially-sighted people where they want to get off and then stop there is to suggest that she does not drive and particularly not a bus.
As someone who has driven everything from invalid carriages, farm tractors and other vehicles up to and including a loaded Mighty Antar tank transporter, I can assure her that driving is not a part-time job where you can do extraneous things in your ‘idle’ moments.
My solution, when faced with this problem, was to tell the people at whatever bus stop I was at, what bus I wanted and to ask them to tell me when it came round the corner, and someone always told me.
By the same token if I told people where I was going, then too I was told where to get off. However, I would like to think that if I was on my own and standing by a bus stop and had not hailed an approaching bus, then the driver would stop and check.
–Mr R Farmer, Old Kempshott Lane, Basingstoke.
