Sir, I read with interest your report (April 7) on the response that Stagecoach gave Mr McManners regarding his complaint that one of their employees had been using a mobile phone while driving a bus.
This is familiar territory. I am a safe and responsible cyclist who has had several close shaves with dangerously driven buses, belonging to both of Oxford's major bus companies. Each complaint I registered met with the same response curt letters from the companies' legal departments, headed Without Prejudice' (which translates in layman's terms as Never Apologize, Never Explain').
These contained similar vague hints at investigations' and disciplinary procedures' to those given by the Stagecoach spokesman in your report. At no stage was I informed whether any action was ever taken against the drivers concerned.
I have two key questions to Stagecoach and the Oxford Bus Company: First, has a complaint by a passenger, pedestrian, or cyclist of reckless driving ever resulted in the dismissal of a driver? And second, if your disciplinary hearings really are as thorough and scrupulous as you claim, why don't you make the results public, or at least convey them to the complainant?
Peter Lewis, Oxford
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