Parents Are Forced To Pick Up Their Children From The Roadside

Furious parents had to collect their children from the side of the road after a bus driver quit in the middle of their journey home.

The students from Kingston Maurward College and the Dorset Studio School were travelling from Dorchester to Bournemouth when the driver decided she had enough and walked out on her job, pulling over near a depot in Poole.

Parents following their children on an app saw that the bus, which had already broken down on the journey and had been replaced by another, had stopped at approximately 6.30 pm on Wednesday.

One concerned mother said her son told her the students had to disembark onto a busy road, prompting safeguarding concerns from parents.

The service for the two schools has been run by transport operator Kura since September but has had a number of teething problems.

A parent said it was the third time this term that the bus had broken down and the driver said she quit because of concerns about the vehicles.

She said she never left any children unattended. Some parents came to collect their children while others boarded another vehicle sent to the scene after she alerted a manager she did not want to work for the company any longer.

She said she waited with the remaining children until all of them had been picked up by their parents and that she did not abandon any of the children.

She added that as far as she was concerned, they were her responsibility until they’d all been picked up whether or not she worked for the company at that time and there was no way she would have left any young child on the side of the road.

A concerned mother said that this was the third time this term that the 703 bus had broken down and it made her wonder whether the buses were fit for purpose.

She said that when she called Kura to ask them what the problem was, they said they didn’t even know, but the buses were breaking down left, right and centre.

Kingston Maurward College principal Luke Rake said the driver pulled over near the closest bus depot and the manager at the depot raced down to replace the driver.

He said that 95 per cent of the routes ran like clockwork but admitted there had been problems with the 701 and 703 services.

The bus driver had enough and quit. She never endangered the children, and if the parents weren’t happy they should have driven their own children to school, especially if the school was outside of their district because sometimes as parents we have to pick up the slack.

The driver should have, however, continued her journey until the end and then quit her job, rather than quitting her job midway through the journey. However, I can understand why she was utterly fed up with the buses breaking down, which has been admitted by the company.

The school should also realise that the cheapest contract winner is not always the best, and cutting corners usually means cutting quality as well.