Stagecoach

10th June 2001

Dear Sir,

Since I find the standard of your bus drivers' driving to be, on the whole, quite poor, I rarely use your bus services. I find that I feel safer and more comfortable when I am driving in my own car. Unfortunately, however, I still have to share the road with your buses.

Yesterday (Saturday, 9th June) at around 5:45pm, I was a passenger to my partner. We were driving, in very wet and rainy conditions, along the A167 towards Cowgate. The speed limit is seventy miles per hour and we were doing fifty. As we approached the layby, near Safeway, my partner noticed one of your buses (N473 RVK) had turned its indicators on, indicating its intention to pull out. At that stage, the bus was well within the layby, and it would have been unsafe for it to pull out. The fact that there was an empty road behind our vehicle meant that there was no good reason for the bus to do anything but wait for the gap. Unfortunately, your driver decided to take the more reckless approach and the bus was driven directly into our path, requiring my partner to brake heavily. The bus cut across two lanes to speed off in the middle lane, giving us time only to take its number plate before it vanished.

I am glad to say that we escaped the incident without injury. Perhaps if the brakes had been less keen, or the road had been wetter, this may not have been the case. I hope that you will not use the fact that we had a lucky escape this time as an excuse not to investigate this matter fully. I would like your assurances that the driver in question has been reprimanded, and that the overall standard of your drivers' road sense is to be improved.

I look forward to your comments on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Ashley Frieze.