Texting & Talking While Driving a Bus

parsi

foggy_lad wrote: »

Possibly, but in mid journey being seen to be making a video of the drivers crime might be more hazardous then the drivers illegal and unsafe use of the mobile device. i will stick to the report to the appropriate company even though they refuse to answer or even acknowledge my complaints.

I also have no desire to see any drivers sacked or their career in bits due to some pointless media campaign, let the copmpanie's disciplinary action run its course and let that be an end to it.

So.

You want drivers banned from having phones,
You want them not to use them,
You don't want to take practical steps to report & prove these egregious breaches,
You don't want drivers careers to be in bits.

Seems to be a few contradictions in there.

Cookie_Monster

liger wrote: »

This may be true for Garda enforcement but if you talk to any DB driver they will know of a couple of their colleagues that have been caught and given warnings for using phone while driving.

I'm sure they have and they would also be far more open to being reported by any one of the large volume of people they deal with daily. In fairness to DB drivers I can only think of one incident ever where I've seen a driver with a phone and that was texting, car/van/truck drivers are much worse for it as they don't have to deal with people.

I can understand the reasons to a certain extent, I even check text messages sometimes and used to answer the phone, but now I've a built in phone system, which is great

foggy_lad

NO WAY! i'm no rat.

parsi wrote: »

So.

You want drivers banned from having phones,
You want them not to use them,
You don't want to take practical steps to report & prove these egregious breaches,
You don't want drivers careers to be in bits.

Seems to be a few contradictions in there.

I would be happy with all transport companies banning any driver from making or recieving calls whilst driving, and being caught should result in instant dismissal as this is the only real dis-incentive it seems, as currently most drivers especially professional drivers seem not to care about this important issue.

parsi

So make up you're mind - do you want them sacked or not ?

foggy_lad

NO WAY! i'm no rat.

parsi wrote: »

So make up you're mind - do you want them sacked or not ?

Have you read my post above yours? Seems straightforward enough to me and answers your question.

parsi

Nah - the one I quoted in Post #32 is at odds with that post.

As an aside I was behind a slow moving Golf today. it was anxious to pull away from the lights when they were red but somewhat slower when they turned green. It indicated it was pulling into a grage but went straight. It was slow going up to and pulling off from the next lights. It then swerved into a right turn lane at the last minute and was stopped. Coming beside I could see that yer wan was busy texting and this explained the whole erraticness of her driving. Her fellow drivers had to blow their horns to get her to move when the filter came on.

My point - we need better enforcement of the law as it affects all drivers. There is sufficient legislation there (we don't need anymore specific laws pointing at specific sub-groups) but not a whole lot of enforcement.

Mycroft H

NO WAY! i'm no rat.

I remember i saw a driver on a late evening empty 84 having a good read of a novel will cruising down the N11

Tbh there should be interior cameras to sanction things like this.

AlekSmart

landyman wrote: »

I remember i saw a driver on a late evening empty 84 having a good read of a novel will cruising down the N11

Tbh there should be interior cameras to sanction things like this.

I call foul on this one.......!

Everybody,as Foggy himself might say,knows that there are NO empty 84`s ....especially after Network Direct improved the route....:)

dowlingm

NO WAY! i'm no rat.

Crossword-solving C-Train driver dismissed - Calgary Herald

AlekSmart

I remember a journey on the Circumvesuviano in Naples (A very similar train journey to the DART) back in the early 1980`s.

We boarded at a small station called,AFAIR,Vico Equense for the trip into Naples.

The train was jammed full of excitable loud Italian humanity,but the highlight of the trip was and remains the open access arrangement in the drivers cab.

The driver was sitting with some 4 colleagues and a broadsheet newspaper opened on the Football page and a loud exchange of views continued throughout the journey with regular contributions from the passengers as well.

Some of these entailed members of the travelling public fighting their way up to the cab and gesticulating wildly into the drivers face as we sped along through the tunnels of the region....

Worse still,we reached Naples,saw it and did`nt die,before returning on a far less crowded train that evening,with this driver safely isolated from his public,although he may well have been reading the Bible,for all we could see of him.

Life`s a funny ol business really ain`t it ??? :P

Cool_CM

AlekSmart wrote: »

I remember a journey on the Circumvesuviano in Naples (A very similar train journey to the DART) back in the early 1980`s.

We boarded at a small station called,AFAIR,Vico Equense for the trip into Naples.

The train was jammed full of excitable loud Italian humanity,but the highlight of the trip was and remains the open access arrangement in the drivers cab.

The driver was sitting with some 4 colleagues and a broadsheet newspaper opened on the Football page and a loud exchange of views continued throughout the journey with regular contributions from the passengers as well.

Some of these entailed members of the travelling public fighting their way up to the cab and gesticulating wildly into the drivers face as we sped along through the tunnels of the region....

Worse still,we reached Naples,saw it and did`nt die,before returning on a far less crowded train that evening,with this driver safely isolated from his public,although he may well have been reading the Bible,for all we could see of him.

Life`s a funny ol business really ain`t it ??? :P

My only experience of this also comes from Italy. Was on the shuttlebus from Bologna Centrale to the airport back in September. I was standing up the front next to the driver and was able to see him texting for more or less the whole journey. This involved negotiating slip roads and roundabouts without even looking up from his phone. Was a scary experience to say the least.

Going Forward

The offence is holding a mobile phone, so texting is definitely out, also drivers are often to be seen eating sandwich rolls drinking coffee and applying make up.

And thats only the guys!:D

Often see open laptops on dashboards as well. A lot of co workers seem to approach the whole thing with great bravado, all well and good until something happens.

Also 2 way radios, (CBs) which are handheld are not illegal??

reggaeman

Bus Eireann Driver.

We got a letter from Managment telling us under no circumstances are we even to use a head set while driving the bus. If we need to make a call we must stop the bus in a safe place and then make the call.

AlekSmart

reggaeman wrote: »

Bus Eireann Driver.

We got a letter from Managment telling us under no circumstances are we even to use a head set while driving the bus. If we need to make a call we must stop the bus in a safe place and then make the call.

It`s worth pointing out that the above has been CIE group policy on it`s Road Passenger services for some years now and is covered under the Disciplinary and Grievance programmes of both DB and BE.

foggy_lad

NO WAY! i'm no rat.

reggaeman wrote: »

Bus Eireann Driver.

We got a letter from Managment telling us under no circumstances are we even to use a head set while driving the bus. If we need to make a call we must stop the bus in a safe place and then make the call.

It is a good thing that the CIE Group of companies has this policy but i can't help thinking that an official instruction rather than a mere note was warrented for such a serious issue.

chasm

chasm wrote: »

I was on a Bus Eireann bus yesterday, and the driver was having a conversation on his phone, (using a handfree kit) from just outside Sligo town to nearly the whole way to castlebaldwin. I felt he wasnt paying much attention to the road at all, he seemed to be speeding on a good few occasions and driving extremely close to vehicles in front. I must say i found the journey rather a scary experience (and ive travelled a lot on buses over the years!).

The worst part was that 5 or 6 times on the journey the driver took out a copy of the timetable and was reading it while driving. I was in the first seat (on the door side) and looked in the mirror up by the door while he was reading the timetable and his eyes were off the road for a good 7-10 seconds at a time.
As i said, i have used buses a lot over the years but i have never in all those years felt so relieved to get off a bus in my life!

I was only saying to someone the other day that i don't understand why it has become acceptable to use mobile phones in work these days- for work related calls yes but personal calls should be left till your own time i think, just my 2c worth.

reggaeman wrote: »

Bus Eireann Driver.

We got a letter from Managment telling us under no circumstances are we even to use a head set while driving the bus. If we need to make a call we must stop the bus in a safe place and then make the call.

That's handy to know for future reference, because i think i will speak up should it happen again. Thanks;)

Azureus

I've seen this happen so much on Dublin Bus recently and it bugs the hell out of me. Bad enough is the chatting away to people while driving, but that I can ignore, or the paper propped up on the dashboard to read while in traffic / lights / whenever they seem to see fit. But lately every bus I seem to get on has someone nattering away while driving.

Just yesterday I got onto the bus and the driver was on his mobile talking to a friend or somebody obviously not work related. Barey glanced up at me and kept chatting while I paid for my fare, which I thought was really rude, but we were at the terminus so fair enough. Then sets off and is loudly talking and laughing about a piss up they were on at some stage, for the whole journey. Unprofessuonal is one thing, but its also so damn dangerous.

To be honest I didnt think about reporting it before though, this thread has made me think that I definately should.