Hansard

The Convener (Mr Frank McAveety): Lab

Good afternoon, everyone. I bid a good new year to visitors to the Parliament. Welcome to the Public Petitions Committee's first meeting in 2009. We have rec...

Ron Beaty:

Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for allowing me to speak to the committee. I speak especially on behalf of the families who have recently lost children—...

The Convener: Lab

Do you want to add to that, Janet?

Janet Beaty:

No, thank you. Everything has been said.

The Convener: Lab

Okay. Thanks very much.This is the stage at which I invite questions from members of the committee. You should both feel free to respond to the points that a...

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): Lab

Mr Beaty, one cannot help but be moved by what you have said. Is the evidence from other legislatures and other countries that do not allow overtaking wholly...

Ron Beaty:

In North America, the system is very successful, although there are still accidents—with the best will in the world, we cannot stop every accident—and it is ...

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): Con

Mr Beaty, you have mentioned North America. I understand that they have yellow school buses there. Am I right in thinking that the use of such buses has been...

Ron Beaty:

I do not know what the outcome was. David Blunkett runs the Yellow School Bus Commission, and trials were conducted in various areas throughout the United Ki...

Nanette Milne: Con

Are any councils in Scotland forcing bus companies to remove the school bus safety signs by putting that in their contracts?

Ron Beaty:

Not as far as I know. The Department for Transport tells them that they can insist on the removal of the signs. We have told Aberdeenshire Council that on nu...

Nanette Milne: Con

There is now some movement on the introduction of seat belts in school buses. I have been pushing for that in Aberdeenshire, and I know that it has happened ...

John Farquhar Munro (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD): LD

Good afternoon, folks. I was interested in your comments, Mr Beaty. I am sure that everybody around the table sympathises with the parents who find themselve...

Ron Beaty:

To be honest, I cannot see how we can differentiate between the two. To my way of thinking—and probably that of the parents whom I represent—a bus is either ...

John Farquhar Munro: LD

You are suggesting that, if a percentage of the passengers on the bus are schoolchildren, the vehicle should have an illuminated sign, just as a dedicated sc...

Ron Beaty:

Exactly. Yes.

Nigel Don (North East Scotland) (SNP): SNP

I confess that I am looking for a bit of help in understanding how we can make rules for bus companies—I am not worried about who makes them or the legalitie...

Ron Beaty:

Is that not a simple solution? The driver could switch a sign on and off. Signs near schools flash up to say that the speed limit is 20mph so that people wil...

Nigel Don: SNP

I accept that there is an issue to do with bus drivers and children, which applies regardless of whether the children are going to or from school or are out ...

Ron Beaty:

That is only one way forward. I am not being cheeky, but I simply cannot grasp why people do not understand that school transport should be dedicated school ...

Nigel Don: SNP

I think that you are absolutely right and that there could be an extended discussion on the matter, but surely it is not difficult to conceive a run on which...

Ron Beaty:

When you speak about a large sign, you frighten me—it does not have to be a large sign. Signs with strobe LED lights are so effective now that they can be se...

Nigel Don: SNP

And in your view those would be small enough to fit in the front window and the back window of the bus?

Ron Beaty:

Yes.

Marlyn Glen (North East Scotland) (Lab): Lab

I do not want to labour the point, but I can understand where Nigel Don is coming from. We have great sympathy with the petition, but in an urban setting the...

Ron Beaty:

I will take your last question first. Most authorities try to do the best work that they can within their financial constraints. Money is spent on this, that...

Marlyn Glen: Lab

I was asking about teaching school bus safety, and road safety in general.

Ron Beaty:

Talisman Energy is currently producing a DVD that will be sent to every school and viewed by every pupil. Carla Oldham, the mother of Robyn—the young girl wh...

John Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): SNP

Do you have any indications on whether accidents and deaths are more prevalent on the morning run, when children are being picked up to be taken to school, o...

Ron Beaty:

Most accidents occur in the afternoon, when kids are dropped off from school. Erin was just about a foot and a half from the pavement on the safe side of the...