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Regulations Affecting Bus Operatives
Page 91
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The Road Traffic Act has Placed Numerous Duties Upon Passengers, Drivers and Conductors, and They Must be Understood
TTIE issue of a summons against a bus passenger for having refused to produce his ticket to the company's inspector has drawn attention to the alteration in the position of passengers in public service vehicles since the coming into force of the Road Traffic Act. Formerly a bus proprietor had no power to make regulations, for the conduct of those who travelled in• his vehicles, under which penalties could be imposed if those regulations were not observed.
He might have put up any number of notices in his vehicles forbidding smoking, or he might have printed on the tickets a requirement that the passengers should produce them when requested, but, if these were not observed, the conductor was in a difficult position, because he could not call upon the police to insist upon compliance • with those requirements. The position with regard to trams or to buses run by local authorities was different, because special powers were given to local authorities by the Acts which authorized them to run trams or buses, under which they could make regulations for the conduct of passengers and these could be enforced by proceedings in the police courts. '
The distinction between trams and buses which were not owned by local authorities has been altered in this respect by the Public Service Vehicles (Conduct of Drivers, Conductors and Passengers) Provisional Regulations, 1931, made by the Minister of Transport, on April 21st, 1931. They contain a' number of regulations the failure to observe which renders the offender liable to be fined.
Conductors Must Enforce the Regulations.
The regulations cover a variety of matters and should be carefully studied by all drivers and conductors, particularly by the latter. One of the regulations requires that a conductor, when acting as such, shall to the best of his ability take steps whenever necessary to enforce the provisions of the regulations relating to the conduct of passengers.
With a view, no doubt, to assisting conductors in carrying out their duties, the regulations also provide that any passenger infringing the regulations may be removed from the vehicle by the driver or conductor, or, on the request of the driver or conductor, by any police constable. A passenger who is suspected by the driver or conductor of contravening the regulations shall on demand give his or her name and address I.:: a police constable or to the driver or conductor.
Some of the more important regulations are those which make it an offence for a passenger to use obscene or abusive language, or act in a riotous or disorderly manner ; to travel on the upper deck without occupying a seat provided for that purpose ; to the annoyance of other persons, to use any noisy instrument, or make or combine with other persons to make any excessive noise by shouting or singing.
It is also an offence to throw out of the vehicle any bottle, liquid or litter, or anything likely to annoy people or to cause danger or injury to any person or property ; to attach to or throw or trail from the vehicle any streamer, balloon, flag or other similar article in such a manner as to overhang the road; except in the case of a contract carriage, when in the vehicle to sell or offer for sale any article.
Apart from the offences mentioned above particular attention should be drawn to the regulation which provides that, except in a contract carriage, a passenger shall not smoke or carry a lighted pipe, cigar or cigarette in or on any part of the vehicle in or on which a notice is exhibited to the effect that smoking is prohibited. If, therefore, the proprietor of a publicservice vehicle wishes to prevent passengers from smoking in any part of it, he must exhibit such a notice. The regulations contain a number of special provisions with regard to tickets. In the first place it should be noted that they provide that unless he or she is already the holder of a ticket in respect of the particular journey—which applies apparently to the holder of a season or return ticket—every passenger must before leaving the vehicle, or immediately upon demand, declare the journey he or she has taken or intends to take, and pay the conductor the fare for the whole of the journey and accept the ticket. In a recent ease a summons was granted against a passenger who refused to produce his ticket to the company's inspector. The summons was obtained because one of the regulations provides that every passenger shall, when required to do so, show his ticket to the conductor or other authorized person. If he fails to show his ticket, the traveller shall pay the fare for the journey taken or to be taken. The regulations also provide that at the end of his journey a passenger shall surrender his ticket if required to do so.
Other Duties of Operatives.
The regulations, as their name implies, do not relate only to the duties of passengers, but apply also to drivers and conductors, who are forbidden to smoke in or on a public-service vehicle during a journey or when it has passengers on board. They are also required, if requested by any police constable or other person having reasonable cause, to give particulars of their badges, their names and addresses and the name and address of the person by whom they are employed.
• There is one curious regulation, the object of which is not clear, because it seems impossible to imagine any case in which it could be brought into use. This is the one which makes it an offence for the driver or conductor wilfully to deceive or refuse to inform any passenger, or intending passenger, as to the destination or the route of the vehicle.
A regulation which all conductors should note is the one requiring that they shall take all reasonable precautions to ensure that every means provided for indicating the route and destination shall be displayed. It is an offence for the driver of a stage or express carriage to cause the vehicle to remain stationary on a road longer than is reasonably necessary to pick up or set down passengers, except at a stand or place where such vehicles are permitted to stop longer than is necessary for that purpose. A duty is imposed also upon conductors in this respect. It is provided that a Conductor of a stage or express carriage, when acting as such, shall not, except for sufficient reason, by failing to signal to the driver to start, cause the vehicle to remain stationary on a road so as to contravene the above regulation.