Thursday 13 June 2013

Maybe they should have allowed the children to leave the 'bus?

From The Daily Mail:

Schoolchildren as young as five were in tears - crying that they 'didn't want to die' - when a bus packed with 50 pupils was used as a barricade by police in a dramatic car chase.

Parents were left furious after police asked the driver of the 70-seat coach to block the path of a car that had failed to stop in Battlebarrow, Cumbria, during the Appleby Horse Fair last Friday.


Yes, as a parent, I can see how they might have slight misgivings about this...

Holly, 15, told how police spoke to the bus driver who then backed the vehicle across the width of the street - while passengers were not told what was happening.

She said: 'At first I thought he was reversing to turn around but we were waiting for a few minutes. Then there was this big thump. We didn't see the car coming because we were on the other side.


So they had "a few minutes" in which they could have hurried the children off the 'bus (maybe using the emergency exit to make it a bit more exciting/safer), or at least ushered them to the side/end of the 'bus which was least likely to be impacted [yes, I know that's using a noun as a transitive verb, it seemed appropriate somehow]. That's where your potential foul up is.

In case "Appleby Fair" and "dramatic car chase" don't set your Stereotype Alarm Bells ringing, the article rounds off with the following clue bats:

Steven Quinn, 31, of Newcastle-upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, has been charged with dangerous driving, no insurance, driving otherwise [than] in accordance with a licence and handling stolen goods.

Why not add "tax evasion" and "overcharging for shoddy repairs to a driveway" to the list and have done with it?

4 comments:

mombers said...

No mention of the value of his house too. Shame on the Mail!

JuliaM said...

"In case "Appleby Fair" and "dramatic car chase" don't set your Stereotype Alarm Bells ringing..."

Oh, it did, it did... ;)

Strange that the oh-so-terribly risk-averse modern copper should be blind to the inherent PR FAIL! in this course of action, don't you think?

We are, after all, talking about an organisation that regularly cordons off entire streets & demands people evacuate their homes if someone threatens a siege.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

"Overcharging for shoddy repairs to a driveway"

LOL!

The astonishing thing is that the cops were willing to take any action at all against someone like that.

Anonymous said...

M, they've been a bit lax lately.

JM, ta for the Tweet.

WY: "The astonishing thing is that the cops were willing to take any action at all against someone like that."

That's the point, they didn't. They bravely decided to send a bus driver and a load of school kids into bat instead.