Bus driver who overtook horse on blind bend is not in his job

A faculty bus driver who overtook a horse and rider on a blind bend, then handed them at pace whereas sounding his horn, is not in his job.

Felicity Armstrong reported each incidents, on two legs of the bus’s journey, on 20 January, to the British Horse Society, Northumberland County Council (NCC) and the police. Three days later, the council replied with the replace.

Felicity informed H&H she hopes the result will make individuals realise reporting incidents is value it.

“I didn’t have digicam footage, I couldn’t even inform them if it was a person or a girl driving,” she mentioned. “All I might inform them was the time, route, location and outline of the automobile. However that was sufficient data to determine the driving force.”

Felicity had taken her 12-year-old appaloosa mare Holly for an “out and again” experience on Friday afternoon, having been ready for the icy roads to turn out to be protected.

“I had all my high-vis on and lights; I do every little thing to make myself protected,” she mentioned. “As I got here to a bend on the highway on the high of the hill, I waved on the bus driver to remain behind me; there was a bridleway I used to be going to get into to get out of his approach however he simply refused and overtook me on the bend, he couldn’t see spherical it. There might have been a bike owner or a horse coming – there’s a yard with a area close to there they usually stroll horses on the highway – and if my horse wasn’t marvellous in site visitors, it might have been a unique story.”

Felicity and Holly had been then unfortunate sufficient to fulfill the identical driver once more, as each had turned spherical and had been heading again.

“I used to be on a straight highway with a transparent view,” she mentioned. “This time, the difficulty wasn’t that he couldn’t see, it was his pace. I didn’t understand it was him however might hear it was a big automobile so I put my arm out and requested him to decelerate. However he simply saved going, and tooted his horn. I assumed ‘Sufficient. I’m performed, completely performed along with his behaviour. I might need let it go the primary time however the truth he handed once more, and tooted his horn, tipped me over the sting.”

It’s understood this isn’t the primary concern raised about this driver; Felicity mentioned she had been “almost been compelled off the highway” by him whereas she was driving her automotive.

“It took him threatening my horse to take motion,” she mentioned. “Different liveries at my yard have additionally mentioned they’ve had comparable, and he’s driving a bus full of kids, for heaven’s sake. If my youngsters had been travelling on that bus, I’d be livid.”

Felicity posted concerning the incident on the Cross Large and Sluggish Fb group to unfold the phrase, as she is stuffed with reward for the protection marketing campaign, and in addition praised the British Horse Society for its highway security work, together with with NCC.

“On the identical experience, I met a gritter driver from the identical council,” she mentioned. “He noticed me and stopped, waited and watched. I gave him a giant thumbs up and mentioned thanks and he did the identical again and mentioned no drawback. I additionally emailed the council about him to say thanks a lot as he was beautiful.”

Felicity has additionally reported incidents to Northumbria Police, which she mentioned has additionally responded in a really optimistic method.

“This simply goes to indicate, it’s value reporting issues,” she mentioned. “I’ve been blown away by this response; I didn’t anticipate him to get sacked however possibly it’s a end result of issues.”

An NCC spokesman informed H&H: “The protection of all highway customers is of paramount significance, and our big community of rural roads means there are extra horses, cyclists, walkers and farm automobiles on them than in additional city areas.

“Whereas faculty bus drivers aren’t employed immediately by the county council they’re nonetheless topic to a strict code of conduct and the place their behaviour falls under acceptable requirements we won’t hesitate in taking acceptable motion to deal with.

“All county council drivers are skilled to recognise dangers and respect different highway customers and we’re happy to listen to this optimistic suggestions.”

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