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5:50pm Tuesday 20th May 2008
BUS drivers in East Lancashire will be required to "sweep" their buses in future, after a toddler climbed onto a bus and spent four hours on board unnoticed.
Transdev Lancashire United launched an investigation after three-year-old Lee Loram got onto the 225 bus in Blackburn at 12.10pm on Friday.
After bosses studied CCTV footage, it has now been revealed that he travelled to Clitheroe and back to Blackburn before continuing to Bolton and back - a round trip of almost 50 miles - without anyone noticing, despite the 50-capacity bus being mostly full.
Lee's mum Kelly Stockman, 32, of Roe Lee is calling for a radio "alert" system to be installed on all buses so that parents will not have to go through the hours of desperate worry she and Lee's father Neville Loram - a bus driver for Transdev - went through when the tot went missing.
Lee was with Ms Stockman in Blackburn Market on Friday lunchtime when he climbed onto the bus in Penny Street when his mum's back was turned.
His disappearance sparked a major police search, with a police helicopter deployed and officers drafted in from across Lancashire during the four hours he was missing.
CCTV footage from the bus shows that it is only when two girls from Darwen Vale High School spotted Lee on his own at around 3.45pm that the driver realised he was on board, on the way back to Blackburn.
The driver handed Lee over to police and Mr Loram as soon as the bus arrived at the Boulevard.
John Threlfall, operations director at Transdev's depot in Intack, said: "We have analysed the CCTV from the bus, shot from the front above the driver's head, and you can see the young lad get on and confidently walk down and hop onto the back seat.
"But it is clear that the top of his head would only have been just visible in the rear view mirror, and bus drivers rarely look in that mirror.
"They use the side mirrors to navigate and usually only glance in the rear view to see if people are getting off or on."
He said it looked likely that Lee had gone to sleep during the journey, and was brought to the driver's attention by two girls on their way home from school.
The youngster was brought to sit behind the driver, who spoke to him to make sure he was OK, for the last bit of the journey.
Mr Threlfall said the 225 route does not normally include a stop of more than a few minutes.
"It's a semi-circular route so at both ends, in Clitheroe and Bolton, it runs round the bus stations without a complete stop. I believe that the service was also running a little late because of Friday traffic, and the law states you cannot be more than five minutes late, so the driver would not have stopped for any longer than necessary.
" But this was obviously a regrettable incident and the driver, like everybody, is glad that no harm cam to the lad, but we need to do something to address it."
As a result of the incident, Transdev will be asking all its drivers to do a brief walk of their bus at the end of routes to check for any children or anybody else in any kind of distress, he said.
BAC, Blackburn says...
6:41pm Tue 20 May 08
concerned grandma, God's own county says...
6:52pm Tue 20 May 08
Sue, blackburn says...
7:05pm Tue 20 May 08
Concerned about grandma's comments, Blackburn says...
7:17pm Tue 20 May 08
concerned grandma wrote:Concerned Grandma, Are you a completly and utterly stupid ?
Everyone seems happy to blame the bus driver, but I want to know why the child wasn't better supervised by his mother, why was her back turned, giving him the opportunity to get onto the bus in the first place. We are not here to watch other peoples kids, they should take the responsibilty of parentage, my own kids were never allowed out of my sight, certainly not at the age of 3, they were supervised much better than this kid apparently was. Blame the mother NOT the bus driver.
Alice Nutter, Pendle Hill says...
7:25pm Tue 20 May 08
Beanobook, darren says...
7:34pm Tue 20 May 08
concerned grandma, God's own county says...
7:36pm Tue 20 May 08
Concerned about grandma's comments wrote:Nope I am not stupid, I am a mother of 3, always kept under my control, never allowed out of my sight as I stressed before, also a grandma of 2, they are never out of my sight either, I take my responsibility to their safety and welfare very seriously. Also Jamie Bulger was abducted when his mother took her eye of him for a few seconds, thank God that wasn't the case here, but Mothers watch your kids, hold their hands or put them in reigns, and then you won't have the same scare.
concerned grandma wrote: Everyone seems happy to blame the bus driver, but I want to know why the child wasn't better supervised by his mother, why was her back turned, giving him the opportunity to get onto the bus in the first place. We are not here to watch other peoples kids, they should take the responsibilty of parentage, my own kids were never allowed out of my sight, certainly not at the age of 3, they were supervised much better than this kid apparently was. Blame the mother NOT the bus driver.Concerned Grandma, Are you a completly and utterly stupid ? 1) no-body is blaming the driver but infact the bus company are doing something to try and stop this happening again. 2)The child was with his mother who only turned her back for a few seconds, I have a child and yes we all know that you have to watch them all the time but come on YOU must know that you only need to turn your back for a second and they can be gone, which seems to be the case here, so don't blame the mother on this occasion. 3) your right that we're not here to watch other peoples children but this unfortunate situation happened and a lot of people did help to find the little boy so we ALL should be thankful for that, there is too much bad in this world. 4) The mother reported her child missing straight away and was distraught with worry she probably does blame herself and feel guilty ( I would if it was my child) but she did the right thing by reported him missing straight away. I hope to god that your comments don't come back to haunt you, and that your grandchildren never go missing whilst in your care. Well done to the everybody who helped find this little boy including the market workers, shoppers and especially the police for their quick responce.
removals R me, my front room says...
8:00pm Tue 20 May 08
Bat E Bird, Worlde Wide Webbe says...
8:06pm Tue 20 May 08
Alice Nutter wrote:Yes Alice but it's slightly different because he wasn't dumped in a creche all day.
Hey, don't you know, its the new, relaxed McCann style of parenting that is all the rage nowadays!
adele, blackburn says...
9:27pm Tue 20 May 08
boycott, stockport says...
11:54pm Tue 20 May 08
stacey, blackburn says...
1:35pm Wed 21 May 08
Alice Nutter, Pendle Hill says...
4:07pm Wed 21 May 08
Alice Nutter, Pendle Hill says...
4:08pm Wed 21 May 08
Alice Nutter, Pendle Hill says...
4:08pm Wed 21 May 08
Bat E Bird, Worlde Wide Webbe says...
6:26pm Wed 21 May 08
Alice Nutter wrote:Wasn't their behaviour "Well within the bounds of responsible parenting"?
The McCanns left their children all day in the creche and ALONE at night, every night! Well, it was their holiday too!
BAC, For away from pendle says...
6:29pm Wed 21 May 08
Bat E Bird, Worlde Wide Webbe says...
6:35pm Wed 21 May 08
BAC wrote:We do know that Alice posted the truth. They did leave their children in a creche all day and alone in their apartment at night. You can find that information on most news sites, if you'd care to look.
Alice your a NUTTER!!! do you live with the McCanns, you dont know the full story nor do I. Maybe one day we will have the answers and put someone behind bars.
BAC, Moving further from pendle says...
6:56pm Wed 21 May 08
Bat E Bird wrote:your has bat e as the nutter since when have you believed what you read in the papers.
BAC wrote: Alice your a NUTTER!!! do you live with the McCanns, you dont know the full story nor do I. Maybe one day we will have the answers and put someone behind bars.We do know that Alice posted the truth. They did leave their children in a creche all day and alone in their apartment at night. You can find that information on most news sites, if you\\\'d care to look. Alice isn\\\'t quite the nutter you think she is. I agree that we may eventually have the answers and do hope the people involved are punished accordingly.
Bat E Bird, Worlde Wide Webbe says...
7:24pm Wed 21 May 08
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Hellboy, Bus Driver Hell... says...
6:23pm Tue 20 May 08
The next step would be to do exactly the same on the upper deck(should your bus be a double-decker...)
I guess those simple measures must be FAR too complicated for the average Bus Driver...