n alleged lack of co-operation with DVSA and the police by the Stagecoach subsidiary Lincolnshire Road Car Co, following the death of a passenger when the driver of a bus had to sharply brake to avoid a cyclist, led to the company receiving a formal warning at a Leeds Public Inquiry.
The company, of Deacon Road, Lincoln, had been called before Deputy Traffic Commisisoner (DTC) Tony Seculer following the incident in Hull on 31 August 2016, in which two passengers were injured, one of whom died.
At the outset, the DTC said that he was concerned about the company’s lack of co-operation with the police and DVSA and its failure to report the incident to them. He was concerned that the driver had reported the incident to the company, saying passengers were trapped in the doorway and he was unable to get out of his seat with the bus immobilised for a considerable time. He would want to know why the company did not carry out any risk assessment about the driver driving the bus back.
Senior Vehicle Examiner David Littlewood said that the matter was reported three weeks later after the coroner’s office had notified the police. He was concerned about the length of time the vehicle was there and the company had not sent anyone out to assist the driver at the scene. He was concerned that procedure for reporting such incidents was not followed. He agreed that the company reported the matter once they were aware there was a fatality.
For the company, Andrew Woolfall pointed out that the operator did not have a legal obligation to report the matter to the police. He maintained that the legislation only required major failures or damage to a vehicle involving injury to be reported to DVSA. The company had initially assessed that the criteria had not been met.
After the DTC had said that there was an expectation that where serious injury or death occurred from the use of a PSV on the road it would be reported to DVSA, Mr Woolfall said that the company was keen to comply with industry expectations, but there was a difference between good practice and what the law required.
Subsequently they had agreed a protocol with DVSA over reporting incidents involving serious injury which was working well. Everything the police required was provided apart from the driver’s initial report, which was legally privileged. The police were unhappy with that and applied for a search warrant.
Vehicle Examiner Tony Aitken said that, according to the company, the fact that the bus was running late contributed to the injuries. There was nothing in the DVSA investigation to show that was the case.
Director Michelle Hargreaves said that when the driver phoned in he had said two people had fallen down and an ambulance was there, saying he did not require assistance. He later phoned to say the incident was over and that he was driving back. They were unaware that the passenger who died was in hospital.
Staff had since been retrained over the reporting information required in such incidents. She agreed that there were a number of factors pointing to serious injury and that was where the procedure fell down. She did not believe there had been a lack of co-operation with DVSA. As soon as the fatality was reported to them by the police, they reported it to DVSA and co-operated with them in investigating.
Issuing the formal warning, the DTC said that there had been clear failures. This was generally a good compliant operator and he noted that significant efforts had been made to review and strengthen reporting procedures.
