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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Do you feel nervous about coach trips??

122 replies

girlfriend44 · 18/07/2025 10:53

Do you let your children go on school coach trips?
Do you go on coach trips?
They seem to be very notorious for crashing.
Another school coach trip ended in disaster yesterday?
Sadly one child died.
Does it make you nervous, and what is it about school minibuses and coach trips?😥
AIBU?

OP posts:
KoiTetra · 18/07/2025 13:37

girlfriend44 · 18/07/2025 10:59

Coaches do seem to overturn in general quite a bit.

That is because a bus full of school kids crashing makes for a good news headline.

A car crash does not.

"In the UK, bus travel is statistically safer than car travel, especially concerning fatalities. Bus and coach travel are considered the safest form of road transport in the UK."

Taken from google, I was unable to find exact stats to back it up but I did find US Dept for Transport stats showing cars have a 60 times higher death rate per 100,000 passenger miles.

In short it is because you read about a bus crash on the news and it sticks with you so your subconscious thinks it is dangerous. In reality your child is at higher risk every time they get in your car.

CrispieCake · 18/07/2025 13:38

I imagine that had it been a car full of people that had gone off the road, the death rate may well have been higher.

I remember when I was at school, the teachers would drive students on smaller trips in the school minibuses. Some of them were dreadful drivers. One teacher drove a minibus into a graveyard by accident. The parents didn't seem that concerned, the vibe was very much "These things happen, poor man will need a stiff drink tonight". I remember one young History teacher driving us on a history club outing and telling us about how he'd passed his driving test the year before after failing three times. Some of the older kids were also taking their tests so they were chatting about that. I think they changed the rules around minibuses soon afterwards but I didn't think anything of it at the time. I'm not sure how common it is nowadays for teachers, as opposed to professional drivers, to drive children about. I always felt quite safe in the big coaches driven by professional drivers used for large trips.

JuniperJuly · 18/07/2025 13:52

It's awful news.
However, the reason it makes the news is because these types of accidents are rare.
We go on coach trips

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 18/07/2025 13:54

I don't like coaches - but they are just another danger we have to live with... like peanuts, planes, other people, roller skating...

FluffPiece · 18/07/2025 13:56

Coach travel is very safe. Here is the last 5 years of data from the department for transport.

Do you feel nervous about coach trips??
Pubgarden · 18/07/2025 14:05

Blimeyblighty · 18/07/2025 11:44

I’m generally a robust person but this feels quite a grim thread. Yesterday’s tragedy was close to me & it’s hit hard for our community.

@Blimeyblighty 💐
I know Minehead and Exmoor well. It's a peaceful place with really genuine people and a close knit, caring community. I am so sorry for all involved and touched by this tragedy.

Astleyxyz · 18/07/2025 14:19

cardibach · 18/07/2025 12:20

A double decker? Your experience gets more and more unusual. I’ve never seen a double decker used for school transport either in rural or urban areas.

Edited

Seriously ? All our school buses are double decker

cardibach · 18/07/2025 14:30

Astleyxyz · 18/07/2025 14:19

Seriously ? All our school buses are double decker

I can see it’s more common than my experience would suggest. I’ve taught in Birmingham, Cardiff and a range of rural and semi-rural/suburban places. 35 years in total. Never seen a double decker school bus.

fluffiphlox · 18/07/2025 14:35

girlfriend44 · 18/07/2025 10:59

Coaches do seem to overturn in general quite a bit.

Evidence? What does ‘in general quite a bit’ mean?

SirRodneyEfffing · 18/07/2025 15:06

While I do understand the anxiety, I think with kindness that you are being unreasonable

i remember being struck with anxiety so badly driving back from Young Voices in a snow storm a few years ago. I was driving myself back and my children were on the school coach. I was struck with such bad anxiety I did think I was going to vomit down myself on the M6, and my stomach was in knots til the bus turned into the school car park

That said, all of that is my own irrational anxiety, in my own head so would never stop my kids from joining in school trips as a result

Elleherd · 18/07/2025 15:12

Celestiel · 18/07/2025 12:44

I think it was less than a month ago there was a bus in Southampton carrying some 6th form students that came off the road into a tributary of the river Itchen - that same company has had 2 more serious incidents since..

In the interest of fairness and nervous parents whose kids use that bus service, that's Bluestar, which is a public routed bus service, with additional school and uni etc routed services, not a hire and reward coach trip company doing one off coach journeys.

There is a difference, and you expect a higher standard incidence rate with a public service company running city center and outlying bus routes, but in terms of licensing, supervision and traffic commissioners, it's similar enough.

You point at them as being a safety concern, so it seems only fair to show their operations record of actual serious incidents. (If they where cowboy operators, I'd be one of the first to point fingers.)

In the last 18 years, and thousands of uneventful journeys, their serious incident roster is:
2 double deckers have hit low bridges on unfamiliar temporary routes while on rail replacement service.
A car drove into one of their buses, sadly ending the life of the car driver.
2 buses (one not in service at the time being tested by mechanic) caught fire.

Fast forward to 2020's:
4 years ago one bus rear ended another, when the first took evasive action.

June this year the most serious in terms of alleged preventable safety issues:
a bus on the 607 service for Barton Peveril College allegedly suffered a jammed accelerator and simultaneous brake failure, causing it's driver to crash off the road and end upright in the river beside the road. Allegedly after managing to miss all oncoming traffic.

Recently the no 18 and a DPD van were involved in a non serious (defined by no injuries) collision - fault apportioning is I believe still under review.

A (Bluestar) unilink bus was hit by an E-scooter leaving the rider injured. Allegedly the Escooter rider failed to give way at a junction and crashed into the side of the bus, seriously injuring her arm. The police are not disputing this version of events.

If these are the recent incidents, they don't come under serious incidents in terms of a bus company at being at fault, they're standard traffic accidents and police traffic investigations. If they don't like any of what they find it goes up to serious incident and up a level. Have that a few times and never mind insurance, it becomes an operations licensing and traffic commissioner issue.

Accelerators jamming and subsequent brake failure are a very serious incident and require higher investigation into how that can happen, and ensuring it can't ever again.
Like most, they've never had a bus roll over.

They operate 29 general routes, and 40 contracted school routes, including 31 for the College and while not a coach company, that's 18 years and many thousands of journeys and miles worth of serious incident history.
I'd say your statistical chances of traveling safely on one of their buses, on one of their routes, are pretty good.

Plasticwaste · 18/07/2025 15:45

fluffiphlox · 18/07/2025 14:35

Evidence? What does ‘in general quite a bit’ mean?

"Talking out of my arse"?

tinygingermum · 18/07/2025 16:45

I live locally to yesterday’s tragic accident.

These type of accidents don’t happen frequently which is why it is such huge news when it does happen. Until the full story and circumstances of the accident are known and made public then talking about coach crashes being notorious aren’t really helpful. A family has lost their son and a community are in shock and trying to come to terms with what has happened.

HerNeighbourTotoro · 18/07/2025 17:04

girlfriend44 · 18/07/2025 10:59

Coaches do seem to overturn in general quite a bit.

Do you often feel scared when leaving the house in fear of being killed in a number of possible accidents that can happen to you?

TaborlinTheGreat · 18/07/2025 17:08

Of course they aren't 'notorious for crashing'. Think of how many journeys in coaches will be happening around the UK every single day. And how often do you actually hear about one crashing?

RantzNotBantz · 18/07/2025 19:33

Coaches are up and down the country hour after hour. Students on National Express, Megabus, the Oxford tube etc etc.

They are not ‘notorious’. They don’t turn upside down ‘in general’.

JustAnInchident · 18/07/2025 19:40

Blimeyblighty · 18/07/2025 11:44

I’m generally a robust person but this feels quite a grim thread. Yesterday’s tragedy was close to me & it’s hit hard for our community.

In the same situation and feel exactly the same. Tasteless thread, to say the least.

5foot5 · 18/07/2025 20:29

cardibach · 18/07/2025 12:20

A double decker? Your experience gets more and more unusual. I’ve never seen a double decker used for school transport either in rural or urban areas.

Edited

Oh I have!

I lived in a very rural area in the 1970s and travelled by school bus for seven years. Up to 16 it was always a coach. However, for Sixth Form college it was a double decker. A nasty, noisy, smelly double decker. I did once get set on fire by a fellow pupil but at least the bus never crashed.

These journeys were on narrow, bumpy country roads sometimes with deep ditches on either side. I don't recall an incident ever.

I wonder if anyone else recalls the small primitive school buses that we used to get in the 1960s and early 70s. Instead of individual seats they had wooden benches that ran the length of the bus - one along each side then another set down the middle. No seat belts of course. We used to love it on those because if the bus wasn't very full and you had a bench to yourself, you could slide nearly the full length of the bus when it braked.

boredwithfoodprob · 18/07/2025 20:37

My children have been on numerous buses, 20+ hour coach trips and a few plane journeys too all with school and all have been fine. I’m anxious but I’d hate to stop them doing things like this. It’s a tiny percentage that sadly go wrong.

5foot5 · 18/07/2025 21:44

Tdp123 · 18/07/2025 11:48

A bit out of date - but copied from the Guardian

"Department for Transport statistics for 2005, the last year for which figures are available, show that nine bus and coach passengers or drivers were killed out of a total road toll of 3,201. Around 350 more were seriously hurt.

Since 1998, the highest number of people killed on buses and coaches in a single year is 20.
Figures from the National Statistics bureau comparing death rates per distance travelled showed that in 2002, an average of 0.4 bus or coach passengers were killed per 1bn km travelled per person.
This figure compared against a rate of 2.8 for those travelling by car, 29.5 for cyclists and 111.3 for motorcyclists. Only rail was marginally safer, with 0.3 deaths per 1bn km travelled per person."

I think, even without the statistics to bear this out, it is common sense to assume that travelling by coach will be safer than by car. Coach drivers are professional drivers, most motorists are not.

meganorks · 18/07/2025 21:48

The number of children who died in car crashes is far higher, so presumably you don't allow them to travel by car? I would image the number of pedestrians killed is also higher, so no walking anywhere either.
YABU

C1836 · 18/07/2025 22:00

Totally agree. Typical salacious interest from people with no connection to our community.
Nothing is certain yet except grief.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.

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