Bus wheel fault leads to penalty for Perthshire firm

Oct 26 2010 by Greg Christison, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

A PERTHSHIRE bus operator which failed to maintain its vehicles to a satisfactory standard – leading to the loss of a wheel on a major road – has been forced to reduce its fleet by 20 per cent.

Coupar Angus firm, Smith and Sons was reported to the Traffic Commissioner for Scotland after the incident on the A90 at Kinfauns on December 9 – leading to the ruling, which will be in place until January.

The decision – which sees 25 buses cut to only 20 – follows a public enquiry which heard how the bus had narrowly avoided disaster after realising there was a problem and pulling into a layby.

Although it is not clear if any passengers were in the vehicle at the time, the commissioner, Joan Aitken explained that it was “extremely fortunate that no one was hurt” in the incident.

The family business, which failed to report the incident for three months, did not manage to escape investigation, with a vehicle inspector visiting in March and finding several problems with the company’s servicing of the buses, which “may not have been to annual test standards”.

Claiming the firm could have gained an advantage over their rivals due to the lack of investment in their fleet, Ms Aitken said: “The vehicles were being sent in an unroadworthy condition when presented at annual test and I am in no doubt from the evidence in this case that the standard of preventative maintenance inspections was not such that the vehicles would have been at annual test standard throughout the working year.

“The operator has accepted that the workshop management has allowed itself to become out of date and that standards are not how they should have been.”

Representing the firm, Ian Smith agreed that his company “needed to come into the 21st century and to look after the vehicles to a better standard.”