(05 Jul 2013, 8:00 pm)Andreos1 wrote(05 Jul 2013, 7:24 pm)cbma06 wrote(03 Jul 2013, 5:52 pm)cbma06 wrote I was told by a Deptford driver this afternoon that there was an RTA just outside of Durham City this morning and a rear wheel came off the bus on service 20, don't know if it was a prince bishop branded bus or normal bus, forgot to ask him as I only spoken to the driver for a brief time.
I know that Arriva service 22 and 24 were heavily delayed this morning by the RTA so must of been between Gilesgate and Durham Bus Station.
Anybody got any updates about what the fleet number was?.
Been speaking to a driver today and got the following information:
what ive been told, without naming names, Another driver saw the back rear wheel start to wobble and reported it to control, control radio the driver, the driver checked only the front wheels and got the ok from control to carry on, then the wheel came off and while the bus was stationary a car went into the back of the bus as the car driver was not paying attention, the driver of the 20 was from Poland so there might of been a mix up of the English language, driver and controller been suspended until the safety people have been in to find out the reason, GNE checking all there buses at Deptford especially the scanias, the wheels on the bus used to have those yellow arrows on pointing to eachover but GNE stopped using them as the wheels used to get to hot and the triangles used to melt.
Those 'yellow arrows' seem to manage ok on the thousands of trucks pounding up and down the motorways, highways and byeways of Britain everyday, doing hundreds of miles.
They cost about 50p a pop and are perfect visual tools to identify if there are any issues with a wheel.
For GNE to disregard them seems bonkers, especially when you consider what happened in Durham.
Edit: Without knowing the full facts, it's difficult to comment fully - but it seems strange the fitter not being mentioned. The driver can't go round the vehicle with a wrench to check how secure his wheel is - he can only check them visually... For a wheel to come loose at that time of the morning, after 3 - 4 round trips previously?
Seems a bit heavy handed to suspend both. As Andreos1 has said, the driver can only do a visual check at best. Made extremely difficult without the yellow triangles.
On the subject of yellow triangles, it's actually insane to disregard the use of them. I'd be more concerned why wheels were getting hot enough to melt triangles, as if they're doing that, you wonder what it's potentially doing to the tyre.
Bit of interesting reading here about the use of them: http://www.roadhaulagesolicitors.co.uk/L..._nuts.html