WITH regard to the report by David Higgerson 'Bus Drivers Blame Our Roads' Citizen April 29, I note that the managing director of Preston Bus, Peter Bell, blames everything and everybody except his own drivers for the various accidents in town in which their vehicles have been involved.

Mr Bell mentions various areas of town he considers to be dangerous, such as Church Street. I consider this to be one of the safest streets in the town after recent improvements. If his drivers were to go slower and use their mirrors before pulling away from bus stops, Church Street would be safer for pedestrians and other road users alike.

Bus drivers do not have the right to just put on their indicators and pull away from a bus stop without even considering any other vehicle that may be in the process of overtaking them, I see many instances of this on a daily basis throughout the town, not just in Church Street.

Another favourite trick of Mr Bell's drivers is to drive up Ringway in the 'offside lane' knowing full well there is a 90 per cent chance

that a passenger will want to get of at the stop on Ringway. The driver, when he sees someone get up from their seat, immediately

turns on the left hand indicator and pulls right across the road into the nearside lane not giving a damn about any car that might be alongside.

I have had quite a few near misses through Mr Bell's drivers making this very stupid and careless manoeuvre and also due to drivers pulling away from bus stops without even thinking about looking in the mirror and giving way to traffic that's overtaking or about to overtake.

It is time Mr Bell started to employ properly trained professional drivers and got rid of the bunch of cowboys he now employs, and it is not before time that Sergeant Moxham and officers of Preston Police cracked down on these dangerous, selfish drivers of Preston Bus Ltd.

Realist, Lostock Hall

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