Bus fleet banned from city's roads
11 Grudzień 2007
ONE of Manchester's biggest bus companies has been suspended from operating on any of its routes by the traffic watchdog.
The jointly-operated UK North and Greater Manchester Buses Ltd have
been ordered to garage their fleet of 74 buses after a public inquiry,
sparked by a fatal accident, revealed a catalogue of safety concerns.
Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell took the action to "ensure road safety during the festive period".
And she slammed the way the firms' 130 drivers were assessed and
trained, saying that the firms were using "real roads, real people and
real vehicles" to practise driving.
The suspension will last until January 2, when the inquiry into the
companies' fitness to operate will continue. The firms' buses cover
more than 3m miles a year on Manchester's roads, including a number of
school routes.
The probe was ordered following the death of 27-year-old window cleaner
Martin Pilling on November 1. And it follows a series of incidents
involving the companies' buses, including one where a bus crashed into
a bridge, ripping the roof off.
Three days after last month's fatal accident - which involved a Polish
driver - police and inspectors from Vehicle and Operator Services
Agency swooped on the companies' Gorton Lane HQ.
After inspecting 28 buses, 16 were issued with prohibition notices for
a range of faults, from problems with their braking and steering
systems to suspension defects. As a result, a further raid was carried
out when police and VOSA seized documents from the Gorton Lane base and
director Vincenzo Casale's home in Glossop.
This revealed concerns over alleged excessive driver hours and
highlighted that in the seven months before the raid, company buses had
been issued 34 notices of intended prosecution from the police, mostly
for speeding and red light offences.
Quizzed
Mr Casale and co-directors, including his brother Ernesto, were quizzed by Mrs Bell about a week after Mr Pilling's death.
They were asked to provide evidence of the training their foreign
drivers were receiving and the standards they had reached before
yesterday's hearing in Warrington. But Mrs Bell said she had received
nothing and was not convinced by the companies' arguments.
She said: "There are a handful of cases where the Traffic Commissioner
must take action to protect the travelling public and this is one of
those cases. I have to put public interest first."
As well as the fatal accident this year, the inquiry heard a list of other incidents which VOSA had concerns about.
These ranged from a bus driving the wrong way on a one-way street to a
Polish driver ripping the roof off a double decker in October this year
because he was lost and didn't recognise a number of warning signs.
Insisted
Giving evidence in their defence, the Casale brothers and their senior
staff insisted that their assessment and training systems were robust.
Vincenzo Casale admitted he didn't know how many of his drivers could speak English, but he said that 100 of them were Polish.
GMB transport director and UK North employee Colin Walker said their
employees spoke enough English to do their jobs and understood a lot
more.
The firms' solicitor, Chris Charlesworth, denied that any drivers had
worked excessive hours and said the confusion surrounded overtime
payments.
A number of the companies' senior staff gave verbal evidence that the
drivers were assessed and trained individually and Ernesto Casale said
they would undertake to bring in external driving assessors.
Brother Vincenzo said they would also ensure that all staff had at least five days' training, no matter what level they were at.
A UK North driver arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous
driving is on bail following the fatal accident on November 1.
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Gang responsible for smuggling millions of cigarettes
18 Marzec 2008
The investigation of an international criminal gang responsible for smuggling millions of cigarettes into the EU from former Soviet Union countries, Poland and China has come to a dramatic end with the arrest of 26 people in Poland and Germany, including the presumed main organisers of the smuggling gang
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