Please report dangerous drivers to the police - Roadsafe. Report to plod, not just whinge here.

When I was helping prancer lead a feeder ride for the SkyRide a couple of weeks ago we had a little incident with a bus. Basically we were in the right turn lane approaching a junction (guess what we were trying to do) when a 328 bus tried to undertake us to get into the the lane ahead of us, this made me more than a little angry so I, wrongly I admit, told the driver what I thought of her via the medium of a one fingered salute. What happened next truly astounded me and the people we were with the driver drove around us, into oncoming traffic, and pulled up beside me so that she could open the passenger door and shout at me something about professional standards. DJ actually had to calm me down! Anyway when I got home I lodged a complaint with TFL and got this response today:

Dear Mr Pringle,

Thank you for your feedback concerning the problems you experienced with a driver of a route 328 bus.

I can understand how frustrating it must have been when the driver behaved and drove in the manner you describe. Please accept my sincere apologies for any upset this caused you.

You won’t be surprised to learn that the safety of our passengers, as well as that of other road users, is an issue we take extremely seriously. Our drivers receive comprehensive training to enable them to perform their duties to the highest standard. As you would expect, safety is a vital part of this training. To drive a bus erratically, at excessive speed or aggressively towards cyclists is totally unacceptable.

As part of their training all drivers are required to take BTEC in ‘Delivering a Professional Bus Service’. This includes a specific module on safety, which covers items such as implications of accidents and prevention. Furthermore, TfL partnered the London Cycling Campaign to develop a DVD training film called Big Bus, Little Bike. As of October 2009, this film has been seen by the vast majority of new bus drivers since the beginning of 2007, plus a further 30% of the established driver workforce. The remaining drivers reviewed this at the end of last year as part of their refresher training.

In view of your feedback, I have contacted First who operate route 328 on our behalf. They have managed to identify the driver in question from the information you have provided. They will now interview her and discipline her in accordance to their internal disciplinary procedures. For confidentiality reasons we never release details of interviews or of the subsequent action taken. However, rest assured that we do take complaints of this nature very seriously. Some of the action that is taken against drivers includes follow up monitoring by plain clothes inspectors, re-training or in some cases dismissal.

Thank you for bringing this serious incident to our attention. I hope my comments are helpful. If you have any further queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Carla Halton
Customer Service Advisor

I know that I was at least partly to blame and have admitted this in my original complaint however I cannot help but feel that the reply that I have been given is designed to make me go away more than to address the fact that the bus driver should clearly not be employed in that capacity. Is it normal for the result of such complaints to not be disclosed? How do I know that this has actually been taken seriously?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys.

Apologies for the lengthy post.