Concern after bus driver for Hetton based coach company caught texting while driving dangerously on the A19

A coach driver working for a Hetton based bus company was caught texting while driving on the A19 last night, Durham Constabulary confirmed.

As initially announced by the police force on social media, police intervened when they spotted a coach “drifting between lanes” on the A19 at Castle Eden on Tuesday night. The movements of the bus were endangering other vehicles on the road.

Having pulled it over, police soon discovered that the bus driver was texting on the job. They swiftly gave him a penalty notice and points. Thankfully, there were no passengers on the coach.

Despite the concerning nature of the incident, Durham Constabulary made the decision to blank out the name of the coach company he belonged to.

This caused discontent from the public as people have a right to know in respect to safety matters, and don’t want it to be kept a secret from them if coach companies are employing dangerous drivers.

However, some social media sleuths identified that the force had initially missed out some details, leading to this image to be submitted to SGM:

As noticed on the bus, the coach and driver belong to Roxbys, which is based in Kenton House in Hetton-le-Hole, Sunderland.

It is absolutely essential that all hired coach drivers act professionally and responsibly on the road. All dangerous driving is bad, but doing so on a coach given its size and potential passenger load, is much, much worse.

This situation could have ended a lot worse last night, and unfortunately there are many stories easily searchable where such circumstances did produce fatal results.