A Mill End resident whose parked car was damaged by an Arriva bus a year ago has again become victim to another incident.
Robert Thornton, who lives on Church Lane, first spoke to Ricky News in November of last year when he found his parked car had been damaged. A note from a neighbour explained that the car had been hit by a bus which had then driven off without stopping.
Robert has now revealed that the same thing has happened a year on.
He said: “It was around eight o’clock on a Sunday evening, and my wife had gone out to put out the recycling. Suddenly, we heard a loud bang. We ran outside to see what it was and so did our neighbours.
“My car was completely wrecked. At least this time, the driver stopped, and we were able to get an insurance claim.”
At the time of the initial incident, several other neighbours had also allegedly had their cars damaged by Arriva buses, with concerns arising about the vehicles going down the narrow road.
Robert’s wife Zoe said: “We have a neighbour who also has had two vehicles damaged by the same bus route in the last year, and staff from the car rental company telling us they are in Church Lane delivering courtesy cars almost every week, again due to damage by buses.
“The damage is an issue, but it’s also that buses and other vehicles are driving too fast in a 20mph zone, which causes these accidents.”
Robert added: “Arriva don’t seem to have done anything to change things.”
A spokesperson for Arriva South said: “Arriva’s insurers are currently dealing with two insurance claims in connection with Church Lane, so we are not able to comment on those matters until the investigations are complete.
“However, our buses have a GPS-enabled computer system on board which provides us with data on how vehicles are being driven. We monitor this closely and analyse the data weekly. We can say that the data shows that none of our buses have exceeded the 20mph limit in that street.
“Church Lane is narrow and we’ve carried out site visits, in which we assess risk and awareness training with drivers, so we are doing what we can about the things we can control.”
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