Moonlighting drivers' probe?
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AN INQUIRY by the DoE into the safety of part-time coach drivers could follow the trial of a 30-year-old office worker who was blamed for a motorway disaster.
After being convicted of causing the deaths of six holidaymakers by dangerous driving he was told by Mr Justice Wein at Chester Crown Court: "There are too many cases of drivers moonlighting to supplement their income.
"It may well be that as a result of this case the Minister of Transport will probe very deeply into the whole question of part-time drivers on public service vehicles entrusted with large numbers of passengers."
Mr McBride, of Newcastleunder-Lyme, convicted two years ago of dangerously driving a coach, was fined £240 and banned from driving for four years after being found guilty by a jury.
He was the driver of a coach returning 50 elderly tourists to the North of England from the West Country in August 1975. He had been behind the wheel for nearly 12 hours when the coach skidded and overturned on a wet patch on M6 near Sandbach, Cheshire.
The coach slid on its side into an embankment and six of the holidaymakers were killed.
The judge added: "I doubt whether this sort of situation would have occurred if you had more experience driving coaches regularly."
Defending, Mr Patrick Russell QC said: "The road simulated a skid-pan because of the freak weather conditions. He panicked when his foot jammed in the pedals and he touched the brake.
"He must now live with the thought that he was responsible for the deaths of six people. He will carry the horror and recol lection of the events with him till his dying day."
In February Environment Under-Secretary Mr Ken Marks met union leaders who were expressing concern about moonlighting workers driving coaches.
He told them that statistical evidence and practice showed that there was nothing to say that part-time drivers were any more dangerous than their fulltime counterparts.