Coach Driver Counts His Money While Speeding down the M8

We guarantee that one of things we do not include in coach driver training is how to effectively count your money while driving down the motorway at top speed. That would be dangerous, would it not? Apparently not dangerous enough for a Citylink driver who was recorded doing just that while speeding down the M8. According to The Mirror, the reckless driver had both hands off the wheel as he was being recorded.

The man who recorded the money-counting incident said the trouble did not start on the motorway. He claims the driver was reading paperwork as the bus was slowly making its way through Edinburgh. He says he did not say anything initially because the vehicle was travelling slowly enough that he wasn’t concerned. However, that changed once the driver got up to motorway speeds.

The Mirror reports the witness took out his smart phone and began recording the driver when he noticed both hands off the wheel. He warned the driver he should not be counting money because he was putting all of the passengers at risk. Astonishingly, the driver replied that he was sorting the money rather than counting it. As if that justifies him having his hands off the wheel and his attention on anything other than the road.

After initially refusing to deal with the driver, Stagecoach (Citylink’s parent company) promised to take action. An official response from Stagecoach stated that the contractor provided the Citylink service for that route. They further asserted that the driver would no longer be in their employ as a result of the incident.

Industry Black Eye

Unfortunately, it is these types of incidents that give the professional driving industry a bad name. While the vast majority of commercial drivers are extremely mindful of safety, it only takes one or two bad drivers to ruin it for everyone else. Had this driver caused serious accident, it would have resulted in a black eye for the industry that could have taken years to recover from. And that’s not even considering the potential injury or death a serious accident could cause.

The HGV Training Centre implores coach drivers everywhere to always drive safely and legally. If you have trained with us, you know that safety is something we stress quite a bit in our coach driver training programmes. All commercial driving should be done safely but, when you are transporting human passengers, the stakes are even higher. We believe we can never stress driver safety enough.

We do hope this latest incident does not dissuade you from becoming a professional coach driver. Commercial driving is an excellent career providing long-term stability and a challenging and rewarding environment. We offer coach driver training at more than 45 facilities around the UK. What’s more, we can have you ready to look for work in weeks rather than months. If you are ready to embark on a new career as a coach driver, we urge you to contact HGV Training Centre today.

Sources:

Mirror – https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/video-watch-moment-coach-driver-3418421