Fears bus drivers could collapse behind the wheel due to lack of air-conditioning in cabs

9 August 2022, 14:12

Bus drivers could collapse behind the wheel due to a lack of air-conditioning in the cabs, one driver has warned.

LBC has been told that drivers on Stagecoach buses in Hampshire are worried about the temperatures in the cabs during the forthcoming heatwave.

A driver, who has not been named, said: “We had a driver last time when it was really hot who actually, he had to be carried off the bus because he was so hot.

“He couldn’t physically walk. He’d like physically collapsed in the cab but luckily enough he wasn’t driving at the time.

"The worry is that might happen again this week as drivers continue to work in the heat.

The driver claims that vast majority of buses in Stagecoach’s Hampshire fleet have no air conditioning - even in the driver’s cab and the only time he has worked with air conditioning was when he drove buses in London.

He added: ”Literally, you can open the door to get on and you can feel the heat coming out of the cab. It makes you really tired, obviously the danger of falling asleep or the danger of overheating and collapsing.

“We’ve just got to try and stay safe as best as we can. Not just for ourselves but for other road users as well. If we drift off and fall asleep and cause an accident, then that’s our fault really.

“You’ve got to make sure you get enough sleep so you’re not tired during the day because as soon as you get a bit tired and it gets warm, you can just drift off like that.”

“A lot of drivers have like fans that sit around their necks and I think it just hits their face with cold air. Some of them have rags they can soak with cold water and wrap around their necks.

“Last time they actually let us wear T-shirts, clothes that we were comfortable wearing, so we didn’t have to wear the work shirts because the work shirts aren’t the best when it’s hot. “So work do sometimes help by letting us do that.”

Read More: Amber warning for 35C extreme temperatures issued by Met Office ahead of four-day second heatwave

In a statement, Stagecoach said it is “not aware of any instances where a driver has had to be carried off a bus due to heat exhaustion”.

It said: “We do take the safety of our staff and passengers very seriously, and where there are extreme heat alert warnings, such as those we saw in July, we put a number of measures in place to protect our drivers and passengers which include relaxing uniform standards to help our drivers feel more comfortable and providing detailed advice to our drivers about how to stay safe during extreme temperatures.”