Bus company illegally disguised the time drivers spent at wheel

A judge yesterday

criticised a private bus company for illegally disguising the time drivers were at the wheel on runs between Donegal and Galway.

Judge Paul Kelly said at Glenties District Court that Bus Feda Teoranta, based in the Donegal Gaeltacht at Ranafast, breached European legislation intended to prevent drivers operating excessive hours.

“I wouldn’t like to be a passenger on a bus where the driver was going for 11 hours and 20 minutes. The concentration couldn’t be at full capacity. That’s when accidents and tragedies arise.”

The company pleaded guilty to a number of summonses of a breach of tachograph facilities which record drivers' compliance with time regulations.

Tachograph
Road Safety Authority officer Jim Fleming told of checking a bus in Co Mayo in August 2012, and discovering it was being driven for one hour and 26 minutes before the tachograph recording equipment was used. The driver drove for a total of 11 hours and 18 minutes that day when nine hours was all that was permitted, with 10 hours allowed twice per week.

Checks at the company showed other drivers on the Donegal-Galway route drove for more than 11 hours in August 2012, but their tachograph equipment recorded only nine hours behind the wheel.

Relief drivers
Defence solicitor Declan McHugh said the company, which had been operating for 50 years without any previous convictions, had taken steps to train managers and drivers, and had also employed relief drivers to make sure breaches would not happen again.

Judge Kelly said efforts were made to disguise or cover up that drivers were working over the permitted time.

He fined the company a total of €1,500 for three offences and took five other summonses into consideration.