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Colchester: mum's fears over bus to school

6:19am Wednesday 2nd July 2008

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A MOTHER whose daughter broke her arm when a bus braked said today that children should not be made to stand on services.

Olivia Hepsworth, 12, of The Street, Great Tey, was in "an enormous amount of pain" after the incident on the A120.

Mother Alexandra said Olivia had been thrown forward with such force she had broken her arm.

Mrs Hepsworth said she believed it was dangerous for pupils travelling to Colchester County High School for Girls, Colchester Royal Grammar School and St Mary's School on the bus to have to stand as its route includes the A120 and two junctions of the "notorious A12".

Duncan Cameron, operations director of First in Essex said of the incident: "At First, safety of our passengers is our number one priority"

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Hughie, Here says...
8:19am Wed 2 Jul 08

made to stand on services


So someone ordered the child to stand?

As reference is made to use of the A120 I assume this is the morning journey (return runs via Fordham) which starts at Great Tey so I find it hard to believe that the bus is full at that point


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Norm, Colchester says...
8:30am Wed 2 Jul 08

I used to get a contract bus to the Grammar School. The dangers of standing up when the bus was braking were the least of our worries.

We were more scared that the older boys would:

a) Give us a peanut
b) Give us a wedgie
c) Tie us to the back of a seat using our school tie
d) Throw all our stuff out the window
e) Give us dead legs and dead arms

Olivia's Mum should spend some time with her daughter explaining how to hold on to something when standing up on a bus.

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No! I'm Spartacus, Colchester says...
8:34am Wed 2 Jul 08

Is it preferable for people to get a seat? Yep. Is it generally (ie. 99.9% of the time) dangerous? Nope.

People stand all the time on the tube and they aren't always breaking limbs.

As much as I sympathise with the young girl, and I hope she heals quickly, 'living' involves many forms of potential danger. Obviously we should take realistic precautions but there can be a level of anality.

I'm off to make a sandwich with a bladeless knife now....

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Scoot, St Osyth says...
10:59am Wed 2 Jul 08

I used to travel 8 miles to and from school each day having to stand up on most journeys. Nobody ever got injured (apart from what Norm refers to...). Lets get the facts first such as why wasn't she holding onto anything...was she texting like most kids seem to do ??.

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Mr Rose, says...
11:49am Wed 2 Jul 08

If I have an un-restrained minor in my car, I, as the driver, can be prosecuted, why should bus companies be exempt from this legislation ?

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Alan, Great Wigbborough says...
12:39pm Wed 2 Jul 08

How did the Gazette get hold of the story?
Beacuse some dear mum wanted someone else to blame. Accidents do happen. It is part of growing up. If you choose to send your child a long way to school, and why not? then you have to accept the consequences when minor aqccidents happen.

Mr Rose has a good point but is he and others prepared to pay for extra buses or suffer the consequences of children been left on the side of the road in the rain for the next if any bus?

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Helsabels, Wivenhoe says...
1:48pm Wed 2 Jul 08

If you pay however much money for a ticket to travel, you should expect a seat to sit on. If you don't wear a seat belt in a car, you get prosecuted, so why is it different on public transport?

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Jane, says...
2:23pm Wed 2 Jul 08

Children should not be wrapped in cotton wool, but does anyone really believe that we should advocate children, or any other passenger, paying to stand in the aisles on busy roads like the A12 and A120 just so the bus companies can make a bigger profit? We are all encouraged to use public transport – shouldn’t we all be demanding not to be treated like cattle and get a safe quality service for our money. After all £1000 a year to travel to and from school hardly seems cheap. The laws that govern safety in relation to travelling within a car are about just that – safety. When it comes to public transport the decisions are influenced by big corporations financial interests.

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ladykinsdi, essex countryside says...
2:32pm Wed 2 Jul 08

There seem to be some very harsh comments here today. The matter of these being children and being injured seems to have escaped some people and if they are hurt they may miss valuable time off school. I have stood on moving buses as both child and adult and it doesn't matter if the bus is doing 50mph or 10mph if it stops suddenly and you are not expecting it you will most likely go flying. This is all about preventing accidents and injury, not about being over protective. After all have you seen the maniacs and the erratic driving on the A12 of a morning? It puts Brands Hatch in the shade! And the school buses to Colchester are not free, I know for certain that users of the St Benedicts bus have to contribute £100+ per term.

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Jack, Maldon says...
5:05pm Wed 2 Jul 08

So if every child had a seat would that placate her? Oh, put in seat belts as well? Go slower? there's a little bit of risk in life thankfully; or should we just live all our lives in cotton wool? If she really doesn't like I bet it's quite likely she could drive her child, but that might inconvenience the mother?

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Jack, Maldon says...
5:07pm Wed 2 Jul 08

Or send the child to the local school...

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AG, Colchester says...
5:47pm Wed 2 Jul 08

from what I've seen when following school buses the kids spend all the journey time running about and fighting.

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Hughie, Here says...
6:11pm Wed 2 Jul 08

As I suspected when I first read this, something doesn't ring true.

The printed story states she travels on the 509 which starts from Great Notley and goes round Braintree before heading to Colchester. As it does not go through Great Tey I assume Mummy takes her to the main road in the 4x4.

The paper claims she pays £933 a year for a ticket, why?? A Colchester outer area pass costs £720 for a year.

Why can't she get the bus from the village as I had assumed? Got it - she would have to cross Lexden Road (zebra crossing) and walk up Norman Way.


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Citizen 139, says...
6:35pm Wed 2 Jul 08

Just wait until the children grow up and travel on trains and tubes then they'll know what danger really is.

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Real Resident, Walton on the Naze says...
6:41pm Wed 2 Jul 08

Yes Hughie people do pay £933 my son-in-law has to for each of his two children, most of the ill-informed comments posted so far seem to assume that such transport is free - if you pay such an amount for a ticket then why shouldn't you expect a seat. I thought the law was changed so that all buses transporting school children had to have and use seat belts?
No doubt in this case the driver was speeding as they all seem to.

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unclemunkle, Colchester says...
6:48pm Wed 2 Jul 08

When there is and unfortunate accident like this why do the companies concerned always come out with
meaningless company rhetoric; of course that are comitted to customer safety... but clearly this accident shows that they were not comitted enough!

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andy, says...
7:04pm Wed 2 Jul 08

I am very surprised that a fatality has not happened on buses recently the way that people are crammed in.To the ones making a joke of it would you let your child sit on the bonnet?

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Jennifer, Great Tey says...
7:05pm Wed 2 Jul 08

I used to travel to school on a bus everyday and the speed at which some of the buses drive at is appaling. Any sudden stop got be potentially dangerous. I was recently informed that the old 509 bus was changed so that all children getting to school using that bus would have to pay much extra and only a few children would be selected to be given the option of a seat. Being a friend of another family which have a child in the same situation, I've be told that children this close to school were never going to get a seat because it was full when it reached their stop. This girl cannot help where she lives and I'm sure that her family did everything they could to try and get her to school safely and efficiently. It is not wrong for a mother to be angry when her child is seriously injured on public transport.

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Bob, Colchester says...
7:46pm Wed 2 Jul 08

To all those who have been making jokes and rude remarks about this incident, just imagine how you would feel if this happened to your own child or someone close to you.

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Anna Walker, Colchester says...
8:20pm Wed 2 Jul 08

My name is Anna Walker and I am 13. I get the 509 and am a friend of Olivia's.
All the comments on here are really nasty and you seem to be forgetting the fact that at the end of the day a girl's arm got broken from a stupid accident that would have never happened if there was enough space on the bus for everyone to sit down. She was holding onto the pole, right at the front of the bus, when the bus driver slammed on the breaks and she fell. In fact we all went forward when the brakes slammed on. Olivia was so brave - in factt I didn't think she had hurt herself at all because she was shaking but she stayed standing up all the way to school, holding onto the pole. When we got off, she always waits for me until I get off and then we walk across Lexden Road and up Norman Way together. I asked straight away if she was ok and she said her arm really hurt and she was shaking but she didn't cry at all. She looked pretty pale so I told her to go and get it checked out by a first aider when we got to school. But first she went to her form room and that's where I left her when I went to my form room. We are both in the same year but I didn't see her during the school day. When she didn't get on the bus that evening, I texted her and she told me that she had been to A&E because of her arm. I was so shocked.
The bus has driven past her many times because it is always packed to the brim with students - the bus simply isn't big enough.
There is a big yellow bus scheme that runs the same route to our bus but you cannot get on it if you want to buy daily tickets and Olivia is not allowed on it because each student has to have an assigned seat and because she is one of the last to get on inthe morning, there simply wasn't enough room for her on there.

I think that most people on here have been having jibes at her and her family and I think that is really awful. Please rethink some of your comments.

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Anna Walker, says...
8:25pm Wed 2 Jul 08

PLEASE READ THE ABOVE COMMENT! THANKS.

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the old sea dog, any port in a storm says...
8:36pm Wed 2 Jul 08

If you have to stand hold on right and stand still, never heard of a bone breaking by pulling before, thats if she was holding on like it was stated.This sounds like a classic case of "I feel compesation coming on"

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jermaine, says...
8:43pm Wed 2 Jul 08

the old sea dog wrote:
If you have to stand hold on right and stand still, never heard of a bone breaking by pulling before, thats if she was holding on like it was stated.This sounds like a classic case of "I feel compesation coming on"
old sea dog, I don't think you quite understand why this is a problem. Its not the way she was holding onto the pole, It's how much everybody pays for public transport and we should all be demanding a decent service.
I don't think the family have made this story public because they want compensation,it sounds like it was a traumatic experience for all involved and they don't want it happening to other children.
This sort of service on public buses should not be tolerated!

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Hughie, Here says...
8:27am Thu 3 Jul 08



Real Resident - If the ticket is £933 fair enough but in this instance I cannot see the logic in purchasing one if a cheaper option is available that will give a years travel at any time of day on most First, Network Colcheter and Hedingham buses in an area bounded by West Mersea, Frating, Dedham, Stratford St. Mary, Earls Colne, Coggeshall, Kelvedon and Tiptree Heath.

Anna

Yes I have had a jibe but I apologise as it appears now that the situation is in the main down to lack of awareness.


The bus has driven past her many times because it is always packed to the brim with students /

The 509 is registered as a stage service and is available for ANY person, including adults, to use - it is not a school bus but a bus used mainly by school children and appears in the Essex CC timetable book. Buses starting from Braintree will be full but the one starting from Coggeshall and the one from Gt Tey should have seats - that's why they start "short".


Can a Great Tey person explain why:

i) They pay more than they need?

ii) Why the need to get the 509 when there are four other services along the A120 between 0750 and 0808 including one starting from Great Tey?


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george buckland, colchester says...
1:29pm Thu 3 Jul 08

i was also involved in the incident, and i also recieved a minor injury, a cut finger. As the bus driver braked i fell into the girl, and unfortunately she broke her arm.

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busboy, says...
5:09pm Thu 3 Jul 08

So it was your fault George! Compo, compo, compo, eh Mrs Hepsworth ?!

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Bluey, Colchester says...
9:07am Fri 4 Jul 08

Sadly overcrowding on the buses has become a daily routine, Especially at peak times, The bus companies continue to cut back on the amount of buses, Hike up the prices and give you are worse service, I use the 65 bus and it's an accident waiting to happen!!, There is clearly a sign telling you not to stand beyond a certain point, Yet the bus driver continues to pick people up and even said to one mother with 2 small children she was allowed to stand in this area!!, If he had braked or crashed she would have been injured and i expect her children would have gone out the front window!
NOBODY should be allowed to stand on buses, passengers should all have seats with fitted seat belts!

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