[Closed] Midlands bus crash / trial - 77 year old driver?

Company ****ed up completely

"He had also been the subject of eight warning letters triggered by a "spy-in-the-cab" system installed by Midland Red in 2014 to monitor braking, acceleration and speeding.

Seven months before the crash, Mr Chander was referred to the company's driving school, which sent an anonymous assessor to report on his driving.

The instructor said the journey was "uncomfortable and erratic" and "would not have been good enough" to pass an initial training driving test."

The CCTV of the crash is quite something too. Well played the guy that can be seen screaming at folk to get out of the way, and is then also first to start running back towards the bus after it's crashed

Its a pity press reports dont get the chance to put more detail in as it would be interesting to read of just which of the Bus company's actions lead to their failing "to ensure the safety of employees and failing to make sure the public was not exposed to risk."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-41266569

Since they had obviously been working on performance management of the driver, at what point would they/should they have terminated his employment to protect their duty of care?

[i]- Mr Chander had been warned about his "erratic" driving by bus company Midland Red after four crashes in the previous three years.

- He had also been the subject of eight warning letters triggered by a "spy-in-the-cab" system installed by Midland Red in 2014 to monitor braking, acceleration and speeding.

- Seven months before the crash, Mr Chander was referred to the company's driving school, which sent an anonymous assessor to report on his driving.[/i]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-45561937

Company ****ed up completely

Yeah, to a degree, although employment law doesn't make dismissing people who can't do their job easy.

The DVLA didn't do a great job either. To some extent a Bus company should be able to assume that someone with a Bus License would be able to safely drive a bus.

Its actually fairly simple to dismiss someone who is not doing their job properly.  You just need to follow procedure which most bosses / HR seem unable to do.

1) Warn them their performance is not up to standard and put in place a plan to help the employee improve.  this has a review date.  First warning

2) at review date review against the performance plan giving reasons why it has not been met.  2nd warning and set new plan with a review date

3) meeting to discuss performance plan, explain why they are not meeting it.  Dismiss.  Takes around 2 - 3 months

With 8 notifications and a poor assessment stage 3 should have been reached a while back.  Company will bear a large part of the blame for allowing a employee to continue when they knew he was not up to it.

Why is the driver's age relevant? Are we ageist? 🙂

Why is the driver’s age relevant?

Age itself is not relevant. But you do have to ask whether any health related problems were contributing to his reportedly bad driving?

We see it all the time with people driving around blind as a bat and it seems there's little most of us can do as the onus is on the individual. Surely though, an employer would have the power to ensure the individual is fit and well to drive, either through medical examination, a relevant test, should there be any concern?

I assume he would have applied for his driving test again at 70, 73 and 76 and one of those includes a sight exam?

Why is the driver’s age relevant?

He had dementia.

PCV medical test requirement is every year at his age. I wonder if that was done independently or by the "company doctor" to keep costs down?

The DVLA require bus drivers to have an initial medical on first application and then a medical at the age of 45 and then every five years until the age of 65. After 65, the medical has to be done every year.

Why is the driver’s age relevant? Are we ageist?

No, not ageist, if people are capable of the job then age is just a number and 'age' is of course different for different people..... but at the same time I am surprised that bus drivers are reportedly doing 70 hour weeks at the age of 77, and I am a bit surprised there is not an upper age limit of some sort for safety critical roles like driving a double decker bus.

I wonder if that was done independently or by the “company doctor” to keep costs down?

So a doctor might overlook the fact a bus driver has dementia in order to save his employer the bother of recruiting a new driver. Even Jivehoney would find that a bit far fetched!

Why is the driver’s age relevant? Are we ageist?

No, of course not - they should let 2 year olds drive buses too. Age is just a number eh.

I suspected the 70 hour week may have had more to do with it. I wonder how many of them were stacked up before that one. There's reasons we have a shorter working week.

But if it is dementia, there's a whole list of people who would have seen the warning signs and who should have done something about it.

There is no upper age limit for driving a bus, or indeed a train.  To have one would be illegal.

Lazy to blame driver and company.

This goes wider and deeper than that.

I'm almost tempted to draw up an accimap of this one...

You don't have to dismiss someone if they're not up to the job, just stop the old fella from driving a 10 tonne piece of metal. Give him a job in the mail room.

Lazy to blame driver and company.

uh-oh, ORM are here with their spreadsheets

According to the Guardian

Chander, 80, a former mayor of Leamington Spa, was given a two-year supervision order after he was ruled mentally unfit to stand trial due to dementia.

If he is unfit now the odds are he had started with the dementia before the crash.  Perhaps too subtle for the bus company to know but it certainly seems like they had plenty of opportunity to prevent this as they knew his driving was not up to standard.  If as I suspect Chanders dementia had started then I put no blame on him - its rare IMO for people with early dementia to realise how incapacitated they are

Bus co fined 2.3 million

If as I suspect Chanders dementia had started then I put no blame on him

my tenner says it's Saunders' Syndrome

The bus company admitted liability and did so early on...their procedures should have picked this up, hence the fine

There is no upper age limit for driving a bus, or indeed a train.  To have one would be illegal.

Isnt true. Discrimination on age is one of the few protected criteria that is allowed to be justified. I’m a pilot and not allowed to fly commercially beyond 65.