Health and Safety Gone Wrong

(c) FreeFoto

Yesterday something happened on the bus that revealed a more worrying side to health and safety than the pedantry and bureaucracy with which it is usually associated. Two wheelchair users got on and a mother with a buggy moved to make room for them. The bus driver completely refused to continue the journey because the buggy was now blocking the aisle. He said he could not continue as he would be breaching health and safety rules: if the bus was involved in an accident and people could not get out because the aisle was blocked, he and the bus company would be liable.

Of course no one backed the bus driver as he argued his point and in the end the mother with a child in a buggy got off and walked. Unsurprisingly, when the bus went on its way it was to mutterings of ‘the world’s gone mad’. But this incident revealed more than an increasingly commonplace obsession with sticking to the rules. It showed that health and safety legislation has gone so far as to produce an ingrained jobs-worth attitude that in this case really felt like discrimination. This rule ostensibly protects transport users but in this case the wheelchairs could only stay on because a mother with two children got off and only then after a rude, angry and belligerent diatribe from the driver.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority has just paid out to a mother whose three year old son was hit by another three year old so it is hardly surprising that the bus driver was so paranoid. The way he handled the situation was indefensible and certainly misguided but he was presumably reciting company policy and seemed to believe that he had no other option.

The Disability Discrimination Act entitles disabled people to access to facilities and services, and the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, a statutory body that advises the Government on transport policy , recognises mothers as amongst those who can experience difficulties accessing public transport. The Government’s ‘Transport 2010: The 10 Year Plan’ states that ‘transport operators should ensure that the transport needs of disabled people are factored into their plans and that the full benefits of improved public transport are accessible to all’ .

London buses are a lot more accessible than some in other parts of the country and massively more so than in many other parts of the world. This incident proved however that these aspirations are not always achieved in reality. In terms of being physically accessible, the London buses have come a long way, but this was evidence that significant structural bias still exists towards anyone who potentially has difficulties physically accessing public transport. In its current form, this particular rule contains an intrinsic ability to compromise the accessibility of the bus (albeit unintentionally) to some members of the public more than others. No doubt it is not the only example.

Of course health and safety can mean compromise but there must be a better way of doing things. Obviously health and safety regulation can be a wholly necessary, not to mention admirable tenet of British society, but when it causes this kind of situation there is something wrong.