Coach passengers keep driver awake
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• Passengers on a speeding coach had to take it in turns to sit beside the driver and talk to him to keep him awake, a court has heard.
Birmingham magistrates ordered Allenways Coaches, its traffic manager and another driver to pay fines and costs totalling £5,270 for drivers hours and tachograph offences.
Driver Alan Crow pleaded guilty to one offence of failing to take sufficient daily rest, one of failing to use a tachograph chart, and one of failing to return tachograph charts to his employer. He was fined t360.
Driver Paul Holton pleaded guilty to one offence of making a false entry on a tachograph chart, two offences of taking insufficient daily rest, and one offence of failing to use a tachograph chart. He was fined £560.
Traffic manager Ronald Freeman was fined £250 after pleading guilty to permitting Holton to take insufficient daily rest.
The company of Tile Cross, Birmingham pleaded guilty to three offences of permitting drivers to take insufficient daily rest, two offences of failing to cause a driver to hand in tachograph charts, two offences of failing to keep tachograph records for 12 months and two offences of failing to produce tachograph charts. It was fined £3,900 with £200 costs.
Nicholas Roy, prosecuting for the West Midland Traffic Area, said Allenways had been hired to take two groups of holidaymakers to Ayr from Portsmouth and Llanelli. Holton had been the driver assigned to the Ports
mouth journey. He was on duty for 28hr 15min with only 5hr 30min rest. Crow, who took the Llanelli run, had been on duty at least 17hr 15min with only 9hr 45min rest.
Holton said that he had complained bitterly to Freeman that the journey was too long, but was told that if he did not want the trip someone else would.
When interviewed, Freeman said that he had not considered the drivers hours limits. He had handed the itineraries for the journeys to the drivers and left it to them.
Allenways director David Watkiss said the hire was from Cheltenham and he had expected that the coaches would start from that area. He had reserved two coaches and two drivers to do the job: when he got the itineraries he did not have any extra drivers available.
The magistrates said they felt the blame rested very largely on Allenways. The business should not have been taken and great danger had been caused to the passengers.