‘I was so fatigued driving a bus it became dangerous – and someone was injured’

Bus drivers have revealed the ‘dangerous’ fatigue epidemic behind the wheel in London due to gruelling shift patterns and pressure.

The drivers told Metro the current system is a ‘ticking time bomb’, claiming that they are usually placed on seven-day-a-week shift patterns when they start, leaving them extremely tired.

They added it’s so normalised they usually end up working 10-hour shifts, seven days in a row.

Legally, bus drivers who work between six and nine hours per day must have a 30-minute break, while those who work nine hours must have a break of 45 minutes. They cannot usually work more than 56 hours a week.

Unite the union have now accused Transport for London of not tackling bus driver fatigue seriously and urged them to take action to prevent any accidents in the future.

Derek Hewitt, 65, from north London, told Metro about the devastating impact it had on him, forcing him to leave his job after he was involved in two accidents, which left him with PTSD and depression.

While working for Metroline, which has a contract with TfL, he said typically, drivers will do a seven-day work week with a two-day weekend for a month before they have four days off.

‘Sometimes, you don’t even have two days because you finish late before the weekend and start early after the weekend. You just go from zombieland to zombieland,’ Derek said.

Derek and the other drivers who spoke to Metro are not alone – Unite’s survey of around 2,000 bus drivers found that around 48% have had a close call due to fatigue in the past year.

Over a third (around 36%) experienced sleepiness while driving two or three times a week.

Serious injury accident

Last July, Derek lost concentration due to fatigue and had to do an emergency stop near a zebra crossing behind another vehicle.

It led to three passengers being injured, including one who was seriously injured.

He said: ‘The fact that I was responsible for three passengers getting hurt was extremely traumatic for me. I find it difficult to even talk about it now.

‘My colleagues were saying it happens to everybody, don’t worry about it, but the fact it happens to everybody is disturbing.’

Derek was later prosecuted for driving without due care. In January, he was given three points on his license and a £240 fine.

He said: ‘It hangs over you, especially when you feel guilty because of what happened.

‘The judges were very sympathetic because the guy who had hurt himself was not holding on when I braked.’

Earlier this year, Derek’s worst nightmare almost happened when a man suddenly stepped in front of the bus near West Hampstead station.

‘A guy marched out in front of me, and my reaction time was too slow, and I almost hit him. I almost killed someone,’ Derek, who was visibly upset when speaking to Metro, said.

‘I thought, “I can’t drive a bus anymore. I’m on the road eight or nine hours a day, and statistically speaking, the chances are going up of actually hurting someone.” I thought to myself, “no more.”

‘I didn’t hit him, but I keep thinking, “did I hit him, did I hit him?”‘

Derek has accused private bus companies of wanting to ‘pay as little as possible to drivers and make them work the maximum amount, and TfL seems to be in cahoots because they don’t seem to care.’

A Metroline spokesperson said: ‘Safety is our absolute priority and we take driver welfare and fatigue extremely seriously. We work closely with drivers and Union representatives to design rosters that support rest and regular routines and we actively encourage feedback so concerns can be addressed quickly.

‘Feedback on rosters is regularly received from our staff. We also have confidential, independent reporting channels for drivers to raise wellbeing or fatigue concerns and we provide access to a range of wellbeing support including digital GP access and health checks.’

Pile-up crash due to fatigue

Joseval, a driver in his 50s who worked for Transport UK, said he also had a ‘dangerous’ incident due to stress, lack of sleep and fatigue.

He said he was put on a south London route that was changed from having a 15-20 minute comfort break at the end of the route to having no time to use the toilet, which was ‘hectic.’

In around mid-February, he said he had been on a shift that finished at around 2am and only had three to five hours’ sleep before starting again on the early shift.

Recalling the incident, Joseval said: ‘On the day in question, when I took over the driving of the bus I didn’t necessarily feel sleepy, but going towards of my end of the shift I suddenly fell asleep behind the wheel.

‘The bus went out of control for a short moment and crashed with another vehicle causing a pile up. Luckily no one was seriously injured.’

Metro has seen his doctor’s note which diagnosed him with sleep deprivation and exhaustion. We understand he was not prosecuted as there were no injuries.

He said his fatigue was worsened by number of days worked in a row, lack of facilities, no time between trips to drink or use the toilet, stress of the job and stress from trying to request shift changes from management.

He continued: ‘When you drive a bus, the full responsibility for the safety of the bus is on the driver, not to mention as well we must pay all the penalties, and if anything goes wrong, we get points and lose the license, and the employer hides behind that, blaming the drivers. However, they do not take responsibility for their part in the issue of fatigue.’

‘No one should be driving 10 hours a day’

A female driver, who is in her 30s and asked not to be named, said she loved the job at first before the ‘brutal’ seven-day work week began to take its toll.

She told Metro how she had to choose between her health and finances after suffering chest pressure, heart palpitations and burnout while working a seven-day week. She did not name the company she worked for.

The woman was left frightened for her and others’ safety after she fell asleep for around five seconds while driving in south London. She woke up to find that the traffic had moved.

She said: ‘I don’t think anyone should be doing bus driving, or any driving job 10 hours a day, seven days a week.

‘Your body clock just doesn’t have time to recover, two days doesn’t give you enough time to get back into a fixed sleeping routine.

‘There was one night I slept around 3.5h before I was driving again, and you are just fighting to stay alert. After a while, this did take a toll.’

After a fight with the company, her hours were reduced, but this has impacted her income.

Her solution to the fatigue epidemic is a five-day working week, with a maximum of nine hours of driving.

Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham condemned the findings of the survey detailing the lack of time and rest between shifts, scheduling and alleged forced overtime, saying it is putting drivers and the public in danger.

She continued: ‘This is a completely unacceptable situation.

‘No worker should be overworked to the point where they are so fatigued they are falling asleep at the wheel and risking their lives while doing their job.

‘It is clear that TfL and bus operators are not treating the fatigue crisis with the seriousness it deserves and Unite will fight tooth and nail to ensure this changes.’

Unite has launched the Fight Fatigue Now campaign calling for TfL, the Mayor of London and operators to stop disciplining drivers for fatigue and introduce a minimum 12-hour break between shifts.

Lorna Murphy, TfL’s Director of Buses, said: ‘Bus drivers play an essential role in keeping the capital moving. Alongside bus operators, we take their safety and welfare seriously and we rightly require operators to meet high standards.

‘We are working together on a range of measures to further improve working conditions, health and wellbeing. We are committed to ensuring that all staff have a fair work schedule that supports staff wellbeing with safe vehicles and access to the facilities they need to carry out their roles effectively.

‘We would like to reassure colleagues again that any reports from drivers are always fully investigated, and our operators should never take action against people raising concerns about welfare.

‘We value all feedback from the thousands of people who work dilligently to keep London’s bus network moving and would encourage anyone experiencing issues to raise these with their employer, their union or the Confidential Incident Reporting & Analysis Service anonymously.”

Metro approached the Mayor’s office and Transport UK for comment.

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