Vocal Voices

This time a double decker bus in Croydon.

There have been a number of incidents with buses, trains, trams, boats and even planes, where drink is said to have been involved. Surely it is time to breathalyse or drugalyse the drivers / pilots, and I do not mean random tests. I mean compulsory checks before any shift begins.

The tests take seconds to administer and the results are virtually instant. There can be no excuses for not doing them in order to keep passengers / customers safe.

Yes, 20 injured some seriously at West Croydon Bus Station today.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-46171805

All major transport companies do random tests for drink and drugs, but there was a case in 2015 where a Bristol bus driver was sacked for failing a drugs test, only to prove in the courts that the traces found were probably from handling contaminated bank notes during his shift, the contamination transferred to his mouth after eating. First Bus had to pay him compensation.

I wouldn't have thought drink/drugs was a major problem in the bus industry, though. From my experiences in Birmingham, crashes were possibly more likely to happen involving de-regulated Mom-and-Pop bus outfits driving recklessly and failing to maintain their vehicles properly.

But, Os, does it have to be a major problem?

Our buses have 77 seated plus (nominally) 12 standing passengers plus the driver. That is potentially 90 vitcims of a serious crash, with many more family and friends affected. They regularly run at capacity in the rush hour.

If simple testing stops one incident it has to be worth it, surely?

And a pre shift test would have protected the Bristol driver.

Workingman wrote:And a pre shift test would have protected the Bristol driver.

Valid point.

If people won't be responsible then everyone has to suffer the consequences and those consequences need to be mandatory testing.

Once upon a time the "offender" would have been taken round the back of the building and "educated". Apparently that's illegal now and we all have to suffer for it.