Unruly coach outings
Page 54
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LAST WEEK we dealt with some of the prohibitions affecting bus passengers under the 1936 Public 'Service Vehicle Regulations. Now for those regulations dealing with the unruly excursion or outing. Passengers must not use any noisy instrument or make any excessive noise by singing or shouting to the annoyance of other persons: throw out any money to be scrambled for or any bottle or litter likely to annoy or cause danger or injury to any person or property. Balloons, streamers, flags and other articles must not be trailed so that they overhang the road.
Passengers must not wilfully obstruct or impede any authorized person: except in the case of a contract carriage they must not beg. sell, or offer for sale any article, or smoke or carry a lighted pipe. cigar Or cigarette in any part of the vehicle where smoking is prohibited.
Stage and express carriages have additional regulations concerning passengers. A passenger must not enter or remain on such a vehicle when requested to stay off or leave by an authorized person if his condition is offensive to other passengers or the condition of his clothing is such that it may soil or injure the lining or cushions of the vehicle or the clothing of other passengers. Passengers must not travel on these vehicles with loaded firearms or any dangerous or offensive article or, except with the consent of an authorized person, bring into the vehicle any bulky or cumbersome article or animal: and if permission is given, any of these must be kept in a place on the vehicle as directed.
I have used the term -authorized person" on several occasions in this series, and this is defined in the regulations as any employee of the licensee (including the conductor) on duty on or in connection with the vehicle.
The penalty for any of these offences against the regulations is a maximum fine of £5.
There are several paragraphs in the Regulations dealing with fares and tickets and these will be dealt with in a subsequent article.