A BUS company has been warned by safety chiefs after a wheel fell off one of its buses and landed in a woman's front garden.
Scotland's traffic commissioner has described the incident as "very serious" and said it was lucky that nobody had been injured as a result.
The wheel came off a bus belonging to Pumpherston firm E&M Horsburgh as it travelled along Sedgebank in L
ivingston.
It landed in a front garden and the female resident called the police, who alerted a government traffic examiner who happened to be in the area with a police patrol car. The incident - which happened on May 3 last year - was put down to an oversight by a mechanic who failed to tighten up the wheel on the bus, which is thought to have been empty at the time of the incident.
E&M Horsburgh runs a number of services from West Lothian to the Capital, and also has the contract for ferrying NHS Lothian staff between the city's hospitals.
Traffic commissioner Joan Aitken said: "I take wheel loss incidents very seriously. Put simply, I do not expect wheels to come off buses."
E&M Horsburgh was also pulled up for a number of other failings by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency, including drivers working long hours and fuel, oil, and exhaust leaks from buses in its fleet of 50 vehicles.
A public inquiry held in December last year ruled the firm was not allowed to increase the number of buses in its fleet for a period of three months until it made improvements to its maintenance regime.
In a note of the oral decision given by Ms Aitken, the traffic commissioner noted that E&M Horsburgh had invested heavily in its maintenance facilities since the incidents last summer.
The firm, which was founded in 1986, today declined to comment on the commissioner's verdict.
John McCormick, chairman of passenger group Scottish Association for Public Transport, said: "This incident is of course worrying and you do sometimes see a different standard of maintenance between the bigger and smaller operators. Not that smaller bus firms should be stopped from operating, but I think you would see higher quality standards if bus services were run on a franchise across Scotland, similar to ScotRail, instead of the existing patchwork approach.
"You have to remember buses are still a safe mode of transport and these sorts of incidents are rare."
E&M Horsburgh was warned after the traffic examiner raised concerns about the number of hours put in by drivers on UK and European journeys.
The private and contract hire firm was also given three prohibition notices - which means a significant failure of maintenance systems - in the space of seven weeks last year.
The first notice was for the wheel falling off but the company was also given a notice for an exhaust and oil leak that was spotted by inspectors on June 14 last year.
Just nine days later, a fuel leakage on a bus saw them pick up another notice.
In her summary, Ms Aitken said: "Fortunately, little damage was done on this occasion but that has luck in it.
"In this case the cause of the wheel loss can be traced back to a failure to torque. On one view, an unfortunate oversight by a mechanic and I acknowledge he is apologetic."
The facts
First B
us came under fire last year after it emerged wheels had fallen off its buses three times in a year. In the worst case, the back wheels came off a bus travelling to the company's Livingston depot because mechanics had not tightened the wheel nuts properly.
Traffic commissioner Joan Aitken cut the number of buses it is licensed to operate by more than a third and warned the firm to ensure there were no further mistakes.
First has since spent millions of pounds improving its fleet, and has overhauled its training techniques
In July 2005, an Edinburgh bus firm had its licence suspended after two wheels fell off one of its coaches.
Liberton Travel, a private hire business, was banned from operating for four days.
The company was reported to safety chiefs after a member of the public witnessed the wheels come off one of its buses as it travelled along Gyle Avenue.
When inspectors investigating the call traced the bus, they found it had already been repaired and moved on.
