…. unless you know better!
First, we have bus a driver suspended after being caught with a female passenger on his lap while driving. The story is here and this is a video report.
Then we have Utah bus driver arrested after police catch her drunk on the school run… carrying a handgun!
Any bets on what’ll happen next?
Today’s duty was an early book on at 05:45, starting with a run to Salisbury. After I’d passed through Stockbridge an oncoming car kept flashing it’s lights as it approached and passed me. I checked, and no, I wasn’t on main beam. Then the next car flashed it’s lights and put on hazzard lights. I checked, and no, I hadn’t left an indicator on. Obviously they were trying to communicate something to me but what was it? As I drove on the only idea was that perhaps there was an accident ahead but over the next couple of miles nothing appeared except more cars flashing lights. Then as I rounded a corner the problem appeared in my headlights – a fallen tree completely blocking the road. I’m on a relatively narrow road, out in the countryside where there are no street lights, it’s pitch dark, raining and the road’s blocked. Aaargh!
Cars were able to do a 3 or 4 point turn in the road but with the bus being longer than the road was wide that was an option not open to me. I called Control and told them the problem, I explained where I was and they couldn’t think of anywhere to turn and were planning on sending a second bus out to do the journey bypassing the section where I was stuck. After the call I walked back along the road and there was a farm entrance about 100 metres behind me, could I turn it there? I returned to the bus, started it up and tried reversing, both mirrors showed me absolutely nothing, I couldn’t even make out where the road ended and the verge began. At least I could stick my head out of the driver’s window and see a little. I reversed some way and got out to see how near I was to the farm entrance which was on the nearside (my totally blind side), I did this a couple of times until the rear wheels were about7 or 8 metres from where I wanted to swing the back in. Reversed again trying to visualise in my mind how far I travelled. Got out and checked again – perfect the rear wheels were in the right spot. Returned to the drivers seat and started swinging the wheel round trying to visualise in my mind what the back was doing. I had to get out and check twice but I did it and turned the bus round! Called Control again and told them the second bus wasn’t now needed but I’d now be running 30 minutes late. No dead, no injured, no damage to the bus – a success I think!
The top 10 most read posts in 2010 were:-
Megabus promotion codes
New ticket machines
A sorry tale
The newest passenger to avoid
Megabus luggage policy
Be careful what you wish for …….
Sharon Tracey, another name to remember
Sam Fardon fabricated the story – official
Child fares
Bus fires
The top 10 search terms were:
megabus promotion code
another day on the buses
megabus
bus blog
erg ticket machines
bus driver blog
another day on the buses blog
black pheasant
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The top 3 referrers were:-
omnibuses.blogspot.com
busdriving.blogspot.com
philstockley.blogspot.com
The top 5 clicked links were:-
bumpyhighway.blogspot.com
busdriving.blogspot.com
omnibuses.blogspot.com
leondaniels.blogspot.com
islandbuses.info/wordpress
A Happy and Prosperous New Year to all!
Full national newspaper coverage in the Daily Mail.
A bus drives through a pile of snow on a road somewhere in the USA. A national newspaper on a different continent deems this to be newsworthy with a headline including the words ‘brutal murder’ . A very slow day for news on this small island. Obviously, no cats stuck up trees or Elvis sightings to grab the headlines.
Today I did my own version of P+R into Southampton – drive to Shirley Road, park in a side street and then take any passing bus (they come every couple of minutes) into town. Bluestar and First buses both cover this route but it was a First bus which rather appropriately came first today. As I boarded I had to smile. This wasn’t a driver wearing a Santa hat and and looking rather silly in it alongside a uniform jacket, shirt and company tie. This was a real Santa! I hate to say this but my general experience of First drivers in Southampton is not that they are rude or nasty, just that they’re uncommunicative and rather robotic – say the price, print the ticket and leave it at that. No ‘please’ and ‘thanks’ etc. I always say ‘Thanks’, ‘Cheers’ whatever when I leave any bus but it’s rare to get any reply from a Southampton First driver. So it was a real treat to see a driver who was actually going out of his way to be cheery. I asked if I could take a photo of him and put it on this blog, he agreed and I hope that he gets to see it. Well done that man!
“A CAMPAIGN to shop criminals who live off the proceeds of crime is being backed by a bus. Southern Vectis has covered the back of one its double-decker buses with the Crimestoppers’ campaign, Too much bling? Give us a ring! The crime charity hopes the campaign will lead to people reporting loan sharks, drug dealers, thieves and benefit cheats. Marc Morgan-Huws, of Go South Coast, said Southern Vectis backed the campaign to support Crimestoppers keeping the Island safe.” IoW County Press.
Ahem …. is this really a wise thing to say? Bling isn’t my thing, if you know me you’ll already have noticed that! But I think to brand those whose do enjoy sparkly, ostentatious, ornamentation as “loan sharks, drug dealers, thieves and benefit cheats” is going a bit far. I’d back any campaign by Crimestoppers to keep my home area safe but I’d draw the line at targeting any one group of people by race, colour, sex, religion …… lifestyle taste (bling lovers) as likely candidates to be up to no good however lightly or amusingly it’s meant.
Anyway, if that’s their game they can start by reporting this bus to Crimestoppers :-)
