Passengers ordered off bus after coffee spilt (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Passengers ordered off Wilts and Dorset bus in Westbourne after coffee spilt
9:10am Tuesday 6th March 2012 in News By Stephen Bailey
NOT SO FAST: Robert Readman was stopped from getting on a Wilts and Dorset bus after a lady spilt her coffee – the driver ordered everyone off the vehicle saying it was a safety hazard. Picture: Sally Adams
A PASSENGER said a bus driver ordered his vehicle to be cleared after a lady spilt some coffee in a case of “health and safety gone mad”.
Robert Readman from Bournemouth was trying to board the Wilts and Dorset M2 service near Iceland in Westbourne.
He said the young lady in front of him spilt around one third of a cup of coffee on the left hand site of the passenger entrance.
Mr Readman, 71, a travel agent, said: “The bus driver told everyone ‘we can’t go, it’s too dangerous’. There were about 10 people on board.
“He shut the doors, pulled the bus to the kerb and ordered everybody off and phoned to somebody at the depot to come and clean it.
“The ridiculous thing was the amount spilt was far less water than you would get when people are getting on and off in the rain.
“I just thought it was health and safety gone mad. I’ve seen worse spills from Coke cans rolling around the floor by the seats.”
The incident happened around 12.30pm on Tuesday, February 28.
A Wilts and Dorset spokesman said: “We will carry out an internal enquiry regarding the incident.
“We would like to apologise to the inconvenienced passengers should it be found that the driver had over reacted to any perceived health and safety threat.”
Comments(38)
BIGTONE
says...
9:44am Tue 6 Mar 12
Tig
says...
9:59am Tue 6 Mar 12
.
Oh no, I forgot, we're living in Nanny State Britain where Health and Safety has gone mad, and all common sense has gone out of the window.
live-and-let-live
says...
10:02am Tue 6 Mar 12
The Renegade Master
says...
10:15am Tue 6 Mar 12
Oh wait, the poor driver might injure himself bending down I suppose.
Health and Safety should not be used as an excuse for common sense. The driver of the bus should be ashamed of himself for being such a jobsworth.
HRH of Boscombe
says...
10:19am Tue 6 Mar 12
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Just another miserable and bitter bus driver looking to inconvenience people whenever possible.
.
That or he really took a dislike to this woman and hoped the others would have a go at her.
Bewildered1
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10:24am Tue 6 Mar 12
Derf
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10:27am Tue 6 Mar 12
surely everyone could just jump on one of the three M2's running directly behind it.
muscliffman
says...
10:34am Tue 6 Mar 12
Presumably if it rains we must all stay indoors - let alone think of boarding a bus.
Health & Safety - an excuse for idle stupidity.
static kill
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10:35am Tue 6 Mar 12
muscliffman
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10:36am Tue 6 Mar 12
Derf wrote:Good idea Derf, but this was the one at the back, 30mins until the next bunch.
what'sthe problem here?
surely everyone could just jump on one of the three M2's running directly behind it.
Ohec Blimey
says...
10:54am Tue 6 Mar 12
Are you sure that this is not the same Robert Readman who is a serial show off and will do almost anything to get his name in a newspaper. Any newspaper?
Picture this time Bob! Nice one!
Cuban1
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10:55am Tue 6 Mar 12
WOC
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11:10am Tue 6 Mar 12
polblagger
says...
11:51am Tue 6 Mar 12
Drivers are given these health and safety instruction by company management.
Why?
Because the company can't afford to pay out the string of benefit scroungers and chavs using no-win-no-fee companies to bring fake injury claims.
So don't blame the driver or the bus company. Blame the lazy pond life that thinks that our legal system is income support.
Bob49
says...
11:56am Tue 6 Mar 12
To the rest of us it is a reaction to the fear of litigation. For evey squeak about health and safety read 'no win no fee'.
Until Joe Public stops thinking that everything that happens is an entitlement to claim money then people who work with said Joe Public will do whatever it takes to protect themselves ie "the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust paid out £3,980 to a nurse who slipped on a piece of potato on a ward floor" taken from the same newspaper that is an 'elf and safety obsessive".
Maybe some of the 'obsessives' might care to look up the words 'cause' and 'effect' or just look up a see there's another bus coming. As to things getting out of proprtion maybe Mr Readman might consider the time he has spent over this, even posing for a photo and who really are the obsessives.
goodoldecho
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12:29pm Tue 6 Mar 12
live-and-let-live
says...
12:30pm Tue 6 Mar 12
TheDistrict
says...
12:30pm Tue 6 Mar 12
live-and-let-live wrote:Because this fine country is run by idiots, being led by Euro beaurocrats, who are bigger idiots. We need to get out of Europe, and bring in a government for the people.
it brings tears to my eyes. whatever has happened to this once fine country?
Lord Spring
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12:35pm Tue 6 Mar 12
fedupwithjobsworths
says...
1:02pm Tue 6 Mar 12
TheDistrict wrote:Don't blame Europe, it's our UK Jobsworths who are to blame - no other country in Europe would employ them!
live-and-let-live wrote: it brings tears to my eyes. whatever has happened to this once fine country?Because this fine country is run by idiots, being led by Euro beaurocrats, who are bigger idiots. We need to get out of Europe, and bring in a government for the people.
ekimnoslen
says...
1:02pm Tue 6 Mar 12
H2o-hara wrote:Agreed. Have you ever travelled on the 1C with a drunk swilling Special Brew on the back seat.
Maybe this was a little over reacted. But I thought the initial rule was no eating or drinking on buses.There's nothing worse than boarding a bus smelling of takeaways.
Not a pleasant smell. If such activities were banned there would be no-one to enforce them so why bother.
EdBmth
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2:02pm Tue 6 Mar 12
B.A.T.A.G.
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3:01pm Tue 6 Mar 12
B.A.T.A.G.
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3:01pm Tue 6 Mar 12
Frank Spencer
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4:07pm Tue 6 Mar 12
calmdowndear
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4:38pm Tue 6 Mar 12
Finbarr Finkelstein
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6:54pm Tue 6 Mar 12
Ohec Blimey wrote:Mr Readman may not be a show off, he may be a tireless champion of the oppressed and downtrodden citizens of this borough
"Mr Readman, 71, a travel agent"
Are you sure that this is not the same Robert Readman who is a serial show off and will do almost anything to get his name in a newspaper. Any newspaper?
Picture this time Bob! Nice one!
John T
says...
7:35pm Tue 6 Mar 12
Finbarr Finkelstein wrote:I heard that serial show off Robert Readman is going to spill a packet of rice crispies when he gets on the bus tomorrow.
Ohec Blimey wrote: "Mr Readman, 71, a travel agent" Are you sure that this is not the same Robert Readman who is a serial show off and will do almost anything to get his name in a newspaper. Any newspaper? Picture this time Bob! Nice one!Mr Readman may not be a show off, he may be a tireless champion of the oppressed and downtrodden citizens of this borough
winton50
says...
3:35pm Wed 7 Mar 12
The next day you'd have a typical Ohec story with a picture of a sad looking mother and child and a claim against the bus company.
We get the kind of society we deserve
sully1202
says...
9:04pm Wed 7 Mar 12
IM A WILTS AND DORSET BUS AND BEING LATE WAS MY IDEA
cardomon
says...
11:29pm Wed 7 Mar 12
Tango Charlie
says...
7:55am Thu 8 Mar 12
What would the Echo headlines be if an eldery passanger has slipped on the coffee (which DOES have different properties than rain water) and fallen?
How about "Elderly passanger injured because bus driver does not enforce health and safety".
Or
"Injury because of uncaring attitude of bus driver".
Another much ado about nothing.....
ashleycross
says...
8:46am Thu 8 Mar 12
Cyberbia
says...
1:12pm Thu 8 Mar 12
Tango Charlie wrote:Well said!
I'd just like to see it from the other side!
What would the Echo headlines be if an eldery passanger has slipped on the coffee (which DOES have different properties than rain water) and fallen?
How about "Elderly passanger injured because bus driver does not enforce health and safety".
Or
"Injury because of uncaring attitude of bus driver".
Another much ado about nothing.....
It wasn't a case of health and safety gone mad - it was a case of making sure someone didnt go base over apex on the slippery plastic-based floors fitted to modern buses.
I fully agree with Tango Charlie. If someone had slipped over or skidded on the spilt coffee, then the very same one's who complain about "health and safety go mad" would be the very same to be up in arms shouting "Why didn't the bus driver do anything about it???!!!!" I know of someone who slipped over a small piece of a plastic bottle on a stairway measuring a 1/2 an inch. He's now permanently in a wheelchair, paralysed from the waist down after slipping and breaking his back!! Not funny!!
B.A.T.A.G.
says...
5:13pm Thu 8 Mar 12
Cyberbia wrote:But as I stated in my comment THIS DRIVER IF HE HAD BEEN DOING HIS JOB PROPERLY AND KEPT TO THE COMPANIES CONDITIONS THIS PASSENGER SHOULD NOT OF BEEN ALLOWED TO HAVE BOARDED THE BUS WITH A HOT DRINK if he had done this no story would of been printed in the Echo and none of us would be making any comments on these pages.
Tango Charlie wrote:Well said!
I'd just like to see it from the other side!
What would the Echo headlines be if an eldery passanger has slipped on the coffee (which DOES have different properties than rain water) and fallen?
How about "Elderly passanger injured because bus driver does not enforce health and safety".
Or
"Injury because of uncaring attitude of bus driver".
Another much ado about nothing.....
It wasn't a case of health and safety gone mad - it was a case of making sure someone didnt go base over apex on the slippery plastic-based floors fitted to modern buses.
I fully agree with Tango Charlie. If someone had slipped over or skidded on the spilt coffee, then the very same one's who complain about "health and safety go mad" would be the very same to be up in arms shouting "Why didn't the bus driver do anything about it???!!!!" I know of someone who slipped over a small piece of a plastic bottle on a stairway measuring a 1/2 an inch. He's now permanently in a wheelchair, paralysed from the waist down after slipping and breaking his back!! Not funny!!
Finaly I hope the management of Wilts & Dorset More Buses really discipline and punish this driver for breaking a Health & Saftey and also Companies Conditions.
ashleycross
says...
8:57am Fri 9 Mar 12
Frank Spencer wrote:The difference is that on a wet day you would expect patches of water and look out for them. In this case it was coffee so you wouldn't be treading your way carefully as you would if it had been raining and would be more likely to slip in an even smaller bit of liquid as you wouldn't be expecting it.
Surely on a wet day with a few umbrellas on board there would be at least this much fluid around?
Jean-Pierre Blaireau
says...
1:14pm Fri 9 Mar 12
Enough is enough!
H2o-hara says...
9:20am Tue 6 Mar 12