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Inquiry 'missed its chance'
Banffshire Journal
The inquiry last month heard that 21800 children had been killed or injured in Scotland & over 109.000 in the UK between 1981 and 2006 in direct connection with school bus transportation.
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I would also like to add, to those who find themselves frustrated by what we do & how we do it.
Personally I would add, to those drivers we upset.
If you place yourself in any of the family’s position represented on our site, & in fact those who cannot bring themselves to even speak about their loss, you would understand why we do what we do.
If this had been your own daughter, son or grand daughter who had been killed, or left wheel chair bound, you would be where we are now, fighting for common sense & indeed for a change in safety, to say otherwise would be a lie.
To the odd bus driver we annoy.
You have a direct bearing on what happens on & of your bus, if you do not display Hazard or headlights, you will probably be in contravention of the rules your company insists you follow.
You will also be responsible for the bus not being clearly seen, as two drivers stated at Robyn’s FAI, “we did not recognise it as a school bus"
The remedy is in your hands, do as your company insists you do.
Most drivers we find are quite happy to accept something needs to be done, that things need to change, that is why we argue for better safety.
A LETTER FROM MR STEF GREEN RE THE FATAL ACCIDENT INQUIRY
Having sat through two days of a fatal accident inquiry into the death of Robyn Oldham, listening to accounts from witnesses , emergency services, police accident investigators, council officials and campaigners for road safety.
While different people can hear the same story and pick up on different things.
Quotes, misquotes and compassion for a woman who had admitted seeing a child start to cross the road in front of her but took no action to slow down even when the danger was apparent to her, even with a clear line of sight continued to drive towards the child at a speed of 50 miles per hour plus until the two collided.
A police investigator stated that Ms Ansell did not have the same driving ability that he did and could not press the brake pedal as hard as he could, that and coupled with the fact that she was 53 meant that in his opinion she would not have been able to stop the car even though given the distance and time he could.
What is this, cars have better braking systems now than they ever have!!
{ I HAVE ADDED TO THIS PARTICULAR BIT AS REGARDS WHAT THE POLICE SAID
IS THIS SOMETHING NEW.
AGE PREVENTS A PERSON FROM BRAKING STRONGLY
OR IS THIS SOMETHING NOW POLITICALLY CORRECT}
Granted at 53 her reflex time would have been a bit slower but all braking systems are servo assisted and therefore physical strength does not enter the equation.
As for driving ability, even though she did not have the same ability as the officer she was fully aware of the danger in front of her!
The general public thinks that police accident reports are all based on factual evidence and to the best of their abilities this is true.
But there are to many variables and possibilities factored in because all the facts are never know in any accident, they are asked to do a difficult job in a very short space of time, based on the evidence that they can gather and factoring in the possibilities they produce a report that cannot possibly be 100% fact!
Robyn chose to cross the road at that particular moment in time; we will never know what she was thinking or indeed what she saw prior to stepping on to the road, all we know is that she did and by doing so was instrumental in the collision that followed.
All children are taught how to cross the road both in school and by their parents and Robyn was well aware of the dangers.
But children do not have the same attention span as adults and are very easily distracted, this has been scientifically proven.
Therefore they do need to be protected from their inherent nature that they may live to become adults.
Children crossing the road after stepping off a school bus per year are killed or seriously injured.This is fact
Rule 209 of the highway code states : drive carefully and slowly when passing a stationary bus displaying the school bus sign as children may be getting on or off.
Sadiq Khan, minister for the department of state said and I quote “The code is not in it self a legal document, but drivers are expected to be aware of its advice and failure to observe this can be cited in any prosecution for offences such as careless driving or dangerous driving.
It cannot just be parents, or those with experience of bereavement who drive safely, it must be all of us, especially around children”.
Rules 205, 206, 207, 208 all relate to vehicles around vulnerable pedestrians.
None of these had been adhered to or demonstrated by Ms Ansell.
While I am sure that she has shown distress at the taking of Robyn’s life, this is not her loss to bare.
Around most schools a 20 mile an hour speed limit is enforced due to the high concentration of “vulnerable” pedestrians.
It would therefore not be unreasonable to say that a school bus also has a high number of “vulnerable” pedestrians, so a 20 mile an hour safe zone around a stationary school bus should also be put into place in order to take the judgment away from the driver as to what speed is safe to pass.
A child hit at 20 miles per hour has a 20 to 1 chance of survival, a child hit at 40 miles an hour has completely the opposite, 1 in 20.
Anything above that and you have no chance at all.
Had this single piece of legislation been in place at the time, it is my opinion that Robyn would still be here today, along with many other children who have suffered the same fate.
I cannot believe that a couple of minutes on an individual’s journey are worth more than a child’s life and I defy any one to say other wise.
Its time that deaths in and around vehicles were not looked upon as accidents; this implies that there is no one to blame and it was in fact unavoidable. This is simply not the case
The cause behind each individual case need to be identified and changes made to rectify the probability of it ever happening again in similar circumstances.
In Robyn’s case, this task has been handed to the sheriff. I am hoping that he will come up with a similar conclusion and make the appropriate recommendations.
These I also hope will be implemented by national government and not swept under the carpet in Beaurocracyand red tape.
Hopefully eliminating the need for any further fatal accident inquiries and grieving parents.
Stef Green
Site Last Updated - 02/09/2010
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