AN ELDERLY Redditch resident got a nasty shock when he discovered a blade sticking up from the base of a seat on-board a Diamond bus.
The 70-year-old spotted the two-inch-long Stanley blade as he was making his way off the 57 service on Tuesday (October 27).
He said: “I was walking down the bus when the glint of the blade caught my eye.
“It was sticking up out of the seat and there were three screws and a piece of loose material lying on it too.”
The passenger said he was ‘flummoxed’ by the discovery and handed the blade into the driver.
“It was so dangerous, anyone who sat on it would have had a very serious wound.”
The incident came just days after representatives of Diamond Buses’ parent company, Rotala, apologised for their poor service after meeting with local MP Karen Lumley and passengers.
The Redditch Standard has been at the forefront of giving passengers a place to voice their complaints and bus users Donna Parry from Abbeydale, Alison Crellin from Feckenham and Jan Dyer from Church Hill North all described incidents of buses being cancelled, running late and breaking down, and of drivers who not knowing their routes. Late and cancelled buses to schools had also caused pupils to be late for school, including on exam days.
Rotala director David Squire and Redditch operations manager Andrew Fish faced the trio across the table and apologised for their company’s poor service since the start of the school term.
Mr Squire promised that eight additional buses would be operating in Redditch from December 1, with more coming next year, while the number of bus inspectors would be increased to monitor performance.
When The Standard contacted Diamond regarding the blade incident a spokesman said that although all of the vehicles undergo a thorough vehicle check prior to starting service each day, as the bus had been in service for sometime it is possible that these items were lost by a passenger earlier that day.
He added: “We take the safety concerns of our passengers extremely seriously and would always request that any similar occurrence is reported directly to the driver or to our customer services department for investigation.”
