Banned drink driver drove bus

I’ll put this here as well
It may again produce more comments than on the news forum.

A BUS driver who failed to tell his employers he had been banned from driving and continued to ferry passengers around the Welsh capital was jailed yesterday.

Arthur Evans was disqualified for 12 months last December for driving with excess alcohol, Cardiff Magistrates Court was told.

But the 51-year-old drove buses for Cardiff Bus about 50 times after the ban until he was spotted by police in February.

Prosecutor Richard Paull said, “Mr Evans has driven buses along well-known bus routes, conveying passengers to and from various points.”

Evans did not tell his employers of his ban because he could not afford to lose his job in the run-up to Christmas, said Mr Paull.

The father of four, of Washford Avenue, Llanrumney, Cardiff, admitted three charges of driving while disqualified and three charges of driving without insurance.

The offences, which took place on December 16 last year, January 5 and February 11 this year, were specimen charges indicating a course of conduct, the court heard.

Evans was jailed for four months for driving while disqualified, with no separate penalty for the insurance offences.

He was also banned from driving for 12 months from yesterday.

The police officer who spotted Evans behind the wheel went to see his supervisor at Cardiff Bus, the court was told. When Evans arrived at the depot he was arrested and dismissed from his job.

In mitigation, David Mason said it was not bravado that led Evans to continue to drive buses, but the fact he carried his family’s financial burden.

“As he has said, it is very hard to tell your children and your wife that you cannot provide them with a Christmas, especially when he cares about them as he does,” said Mr Mason.

“On this occasion his thinking was somewhat clouded by the fact that he had family responsibilities and he is sorry he took the actions that he did.”

icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news … _page.html

The drink driving ban is one thing, if he was over the limit then he only has himself to blame.

As for continuing to work, well I suppose you have to be in that situation to know what you would do, or be forced into doing. I refuse to condemn the guy for trying to protect his family, his income and his dignity but he could have gone about it differently. Even that’s easy for me to say being on the outside looking in, depends how old Mr Evans is, how qualified, how able and I guess jobs in the valley’s are not over abundant.

What I wondered was how often this happens.
Most bus companies are responsible & do check drivers licences on a regular basis, but if you look at the van & company car operators for example I just thought how wide spread this is.
I tried to get one lot I did some work for to check the licences on a regular basis, but it was viewed as unnecessary, they had no idea if anyone had been banned or given points, their view was you have a duty to tell us, but we don’t make a point of ensuring you are safe to drive.

Good point Daxi, you do have a duty to tell your firm if you get a driving conviction but any company has a duty of care to ensure that anyone employed by then is competent to carry out the duty they are paid to carry out.

If they don’t check and there is an incident in which there is injury then they are also liable to prosecution for not ensuring that your competence is valid, up to date and any training refreshers are held regularly.

There should be a proper audit regime in place to check, its a legal requirement under the management of the health & safety at work regs.

This is not the first time this type of thing has happened, I know that some who have a pending conviction have applied for a replacement licence before points/ban is put onto the origional licence, and therefore still have a clean licence to show to there employer, or prospective employer. I think this is why the dvla have started a scheme that allows employers to pay to see licence details of any driver.

duracell:
I think this is why the dvla have started a scheme that allows employers to pay to see licence details of any driver.

Don’t use De Poel do they?

This will have resulted in a huge black mark against the operators licence. I wouldn’t mind being in that sitting when it comes up for renewal.

I bet there will be a lot of firms carrying out licence checks in the near future, Digital tachos would be able to stop this to a degree as it is personal to the driver, they could probably deactivate its validity, but this would not have caught this driver, as on scheduled bus routes they do not use a tacho.