AFTER reading about the terrible death of the young girl and the death of a 12-year-old boy both due to the same sort of accident, I feel as a mother of three children who all catch a school bus to and from school, the issue of bus drivers not waiting or setting off when they can clearly see someone running for the bus, needs to be addressed.

I am not saying this was the case with these bus drivers and sympathise greatly with everyone involved in these terrible accidents.

However, I have watched on many occasions, children running for a bus, knocking on bus windows and I have even seen bus drivers close the door on children. This raises the issue of why there are never enough buses in service while children are travelling to and from school. The children are always squashed together and so the buses are obviously over-loaded.

The local education and transport departments need to take a long hard look at what their role might be in these cases.

Also, bus drivers need to treat children like paying passengers and not like some kid trying to hitch a ride. The cost of travel for my children is £10.80 per week.

MRS P. HALL

Bolton Road,

Bury.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.