Consequences of rucksacks on public transport

I WONDER how many of your readers are fed up being thumped and bumped by the enormous rucksacks which seem to be so commonplace nowadays.?

Unfortunately, from the front, one is not aware of the enormous “cosh” that is being carried on the back of a rucksack carrier.

Until, that is, the rucksack’s owner turns around and knocks you into the middle of the following week.

The perpetrators seem to be quite unaware of how lethal their backpacks can be.

I am sure rucksacks make perfect sense for their owners. They leave their hands free, while their backs and shoulders take the not-inconsiderable strain of the huge loads they carry.

I have recently travelled by both plane and train.

On the former, I saw an elderly gentleman who was literally knocked from a standing position into a seat when a backpacker turned round.

The backpacker was blissfully unaware of the somewhat dazed gentleman who was behind him.

Similarly, at a very busy Euston station, while waiting for the Glasgow train, I found myself caught between two rucksack owners. Almost simultaneously they turned back to back with each other.

Their rucksacks touched and they turned and apologised profusely to each other, quite oblivious to the fact that I had had to take a leap forward, of which the Olympic track and field athlete Greg Rutherford would have been proud, in order to avoid being squashed between them.

I have often wondered if a coalman carrying a sack of coal that was about the size of some rucksacks would be welcome on public transport? Mrs Yvonne Sim, 3 MacNicol Court, East Kilbride.