SPEEDING bus drivers are facing a strict clampdown after a Manchester Evening News trap clocked buses breaking the speed limit on a busy shopping street.
Every driver working for the First bus firm has been issued with a reminder about a voluntary 10mph city centre code, and in a two-pronged attack the city council is considering installing two special speed cameras on Cross Street and Corporation Street.
It comes after the Manchester Evening News set up a city centre speed trap at the spot and found buses flouting the 30mph speed limit as well as a voluntary 10mph code set up after a pedestrian died on the dangerous stretch.
Every bus driver working for First Manchester has had a reminder of the 10mph code printed on their payslips in bold type below their net pay - in order to make sure they notice the warning.
The company is warning that anyone found breaking a voluntary code in a special city centre zone could face disciplinary action - and has been sending out its own inspectors to monitor buses at the spot using speed guns.
A spokesman for First said: "The notice has gone out to all staff, regardless of whether they are drivers, reminding them that the speed limit is 10mph in the city centre.
"This is something which had obviously lapsed and following the M.E.N. findings we said we would issue a reminder to drivers, who may for whatever reason have not been observing the code.
Serious
"Our inspectors have also been out at that junction regularly and anyone who is caught speeding will be disciplined. We are very serious about this and we are making that clear."
The new written warning to First bus drivers is a direct result of the M.E.N. radar gun trap, which clocked drivers reaching speeds of up to 42mph on the 30mph stretch.
Drivers are supposed to observe a 20mph voluntary code on Cross Street and Corporation Street under an agreement adopted following an earlier M.E.N. investigation triggered by the death of a 45-year-old man from Blackley.
However, 26 people have still been hurt in accidents there in the last three years - 20 of them involving buses.
We used a radar gun and clocked one bus at 42mph, another at 39mph and others breaking the 30mph limit.
City council head of engineering, Chris Barber, said: "What we want to do is reduce the number of casualties. In this particular area, tackling speeding buses is significant."
Bosses also hope to get new powers from the government and use cameras to tackle car and van drivers.
Ian Davies, managing director of First bus services in Greater Manchester said: "It's very early days, but there have been some initial conversations on the possibility of introducing cameras at this location."
"For our part, provided cameras were employed to monitor the safe progress of all traffic through the junction, we would have no objections."
Ray Cossins, commercial director of Stagecoach, said the company would co-operate with the council.
Should buses drive slower in the city centre? Have your say.
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I don't often go on the bus but just recently had to, and had a bad experience on every journey, i used the arriva bus service into altrincham through the lanes, and the speed of every journey was very fast in some cases the driver almost ended up in the fields, one day if nothing is done i can see a crash happening, arriva drivers better wake up!
Busses turn into the bus station at Piccadilly off Portland Street regardless of the lights on the pedestrian crossing. I nearly got run over and had to double check that the "green man" was actually showing - which it was ! The bus driver looked at me like I was an idiot who had just run into the road !
It's not the buses that I see as the problem but the dozens of cars and vans flying past the No Entry signs during the day.
I think I've only ever seen one policeman on duty to warn drivers. Last night I saw a police van in the traffic queue but they did nothing.
I have always thought that the buses were driving too fast in the city, they appear to have a low regard for us pedestrians too! Its about time that someone in authority did something about it.
If have a high visibility jacket and an old hair drier, stand on cross street pointing it at the buses , you can have hours of fun, and improve road safety.
its a horrible circle you people put bus drivers in. we drive too fast in the city do we? so our services are always late are they? you cant have both if we were driving too fast then surely the services would be early or on time. stop your moaning and open your eyes when crossing the road, all you care about is shoppoing thats why people get hit. it is faster for a human being to stop walking than it is for a 20 metre bus to stop!
If drivers obeyed the recomendations in the city centre there wouldn't be a problem.
We are experiencing the worst standards of driving from bus drivers in living memory.
no we are experiancing the most "asleep" state in members of the public. waltzing out into the road!