Bus driver sacked for playing PSP

Grand Theft Auto, naturally

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 20th March 2006 10:46 GMT

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A bus driver has been sacked after passengers complained he was driving the bus while playing a portable games machine.

Steve Allcock was playing Grand Theft Auto on his PSP. Passengers could clearly hear the sound effects from the game while he drove the bus from Accrington to Blackburn in Lancashire. When the bus company received complaints it checked CCTV footage and spotted the driver with the games console wedged between his knees.

One unhappy customer told the Daily Record: "He was playing a Grand Theft Auto game and the screams of the characters being shot could be heard all around the bus.

"I find it hard to believe that anyone driving a car with a PSP on their knee would be considered a safe driver - doubly so a person in charge of a singledecker bus capable of carrying 40 to 50 passengers."

Michael Morton, MD of the bus company Blackburn Transport, told the paper: "We take a very dim view of drivers using any sort of device that will distract them from their job. All we are able to say in any of these cases is we feel the appropriate disciplinary action has been taken." More here. ®

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