Western Morning News (Saturday)
Concerns over bus fires raised at national level
AN investigation has been launched and questions are being asked at national level after a Devon bus was nearly destroyed in the latest in a series of bus fires.
Stagecoach Bus has confirmed it is investigating the fire which nearly destroyed a single decker bus in Tiverton on Monday night. The driver and passengers all escaped unhurt.
But concerns about the large number of bus fires across the country have now been raised at a national level by rail and bus workers’ union the RMT which says nobody is looking at the wider picture. An RMT health and safety spokesman said: “This is something we are taking very seriously. A report will be going in to our health and safety sub-committee and this will be raised at a national level.”
Devon and Cornwall RMT regional union organiser Barry West has been asking questions because of the large number of bus fires across the country over the last two years, including contacting the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Stagecoach and the Road Traffic Commissioner.
He told WMN sister website DevonLive: “You only have to do a quick Google search to see how frequently fires like this are happening across the country. My concern is that one of these fires could be catastrophic. I don’t know that anybody is looking at the national picture and my belief is that we are one small step away from multiple fatalities.”
Stagecoach told DevonLive they are conducting an investigation into the latest fire in Tiverton: “All vehicles across our fleet are regularly serviced as part of our stringent maintenance policy. The safety of our passengers and staff is our highest priority. The incident resulted in no injuries, and we are conducting an investigation in line with our company procedures.”
Mr West from the RMT added: “We were very concerned by the incident in Tiverton this week and we were glad to hear that everybody managed to escape unhurt - both passengers and the bus driver.
“The RMT has been very concerned about the apparently high number of bus fires in the UK for
some time. We have made representations to Stagecoach Bus in the past and we will be writing to them again to ask for reassurances about what they are doing to understand why these fires are happening and what action they are taking to identify the number of fires, the cause of the fires and how they can reduce the possibility of this happening again.”
The latest fire damaged the main road into Tiverton and emergency repairs were carried out on the A396 Exeter Road.
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service were called to fire at 9.40pm on Monday night.
Earlier this year three fire crews fought a serious fire which severely damaged a single decker Stagecoach bus in Smallcombe Road, Paignton. A double decker Stagecoach bus burst into flames in Exeter on the A379 at Peamore near Kenn in 2017.