The Clere School pupils taken on 'magical mystery tour of Basingstoke' after replacement driver didn't know bus route
A group of school pupils who were taken on a "magical mystery tour of Basingstoke" had to take charge after their bus driver didn’t know the usual after school route.
On Thursday, November 17, a group of pupils from The Clere School boarded a bus from the Burghclere secondary school bound for Silchester, which passes through the village and its surrounding areas.
The regular service is usually operated by Newbury & District, but on that afternoon, one and a half hours late, a replacement bus from a different company arrived at the school because Newbury & District didn’t have enough available vehicles in operation at the time.
The replacement driver, who was driving a double decker unfit to navigate the country lanes on the usual bus route, began to take directions from children onboard halfway through the journey when the pupils realised the service wasn’t going the way it was supposed to.
Lindsey Kerr, a parent whose 13-year-old son was onboard the bus service two weeks ago, wanted to make sure such an incident doesn’t happen again.
The school has said it has since had reassurances from the bus operator that measures are in place to ensure this does not happen again.
She said: "The adults involved were making bad decisions that were leading onto further bad decisions and it ended up with the children having to take control of the situation and dealing with it themselves."
One child almost alighted at Pitt Hall Farm on the A339 between Kingsclere and Basingstoke, deciding to walk home in the dark along the 60mph road because it was an area he was familiar with. Mrs Kerr believed this could have had fatal consequences.
She said: "Thank God we’re in this situation where all they have to do is apologise for their shortcomings and not have to deal with the death of a child."
Mrs Kerr’s son and many other pupils on the bus don’t have mobile phones, so were unable to communicate with their families to let them know what was happening.
A group of children which included Mrs Kerr’s son decided to disembark together, and one of the children in the group was able to contact their parents.
Other concerned parents were quickly notified and then they travelled to pick up their children from where they had departed the bus.
Mrs Kerr said she believed that Newbury & District should have waited and sent one of their own buses and drivers when they became available.
She was contacted by The Clere’s head of school Robin Milner who apologised for the incident and assured her that safeguarding measures were being put in place so that it wouldn’t happen again.
She said: "I just want to make sure that all the things they’re going to put in place do happen and it’s not just pretty words. I also think other people need to know about this.
"There was a catalogue of errors that just compounded and luckily, everything went well and the children got home, but the worst case scenario was that a child could have been run over."
Mrs Kerr and the other parents involved have had no communication or apology from Newbury & District since the incident, something Mrs Kerr said she would have appreciated.
In a statement the school said: "We totally understand the concern this incident caused students and parents and we have apologised to them on behalf of the transport operator, who has accepted full responsibility.
"The safety and wellbeing of pupils is paramount and we have liaised closely with the operator to do what we can to prevent a recurrence and have strenuously reiterated our expectations in the event of any future issues.
"The operator has put clear steps in place to this end and parents have been informed. The measures include ensuring that any replacement drivers, should they be needed, are completely familiar with the required route."
