Safely first then buses
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BUSES moving off from bus stops will have priority—where it is safe—over other traffic, according to the proposed updated Highway Code.
And the new code will include particular reference to bus-lane behaviour.
Mr Ken Marks, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, at a presentation of Road Safety Awards to bus drivers and conductors at Manchester last week, said the new code was being up-dated to fall in line with changing traffic conditions.
Mr Marks was impressed with the continued reduction in the overall number of bus accidents in the Greater Manchester area. Fewer accidents occurred when children alighted from buses—less than two per cent of deaths in 1973.
"Thankfully, the number of child casualties has been declining," he said. "The number of child pedestrians killed in 1974 was the smallest since 1959. But we must continue our efforts to spread safety consciousness among all children and those who look after and teach them."
Behind most accidents, he went on, lay a child's impulsiveness. Nearly a third were due to children running into the road.