A Travel West Midlands driver who was involved in the bus crash that took place between Coventry bus station and Nuneaton train station, Warwickshire has lost his unfair dismissal case against the company.
The crash caused a damage of nearly £15,000, and the driver Pankaj Mohan was sacked by the company despite being in service for the last 25 years. However, Mr. Mohan claimed that he had been unfairly sacked and that the penalty by Travel West Midlands was too harsh. A case against the company was registered in the Birmingham Employment Tribunal.
The crash took place last May, when Mr. Pankaj took a wrong route and the double-decker bus hit the low bridge on Attleborough Road, Nuneaton. At the time of the crash, there was a solitary woman passenger seated on the front of the upper deck. The crash left her in shock as she escaped death by a matter of a few inches. The Tribunal heard the details of the crash and dismissed the driver’s plea, agreeing with the company that the sacking was a fair punishment for the mistake.
John Brown, the attorney for Mr. Mohan, brought to the court’s attention a similar accident caused by a colleague of Mr. Mohan, wherein the driver was allowed to continue with his services with the organization. To this, Bernard Delaney, Travel West Midlands Coventry Depot Director, explained to the court that the employee was allowed to continue with his duties on compassionate grounds, as he was preoccupied with a recent divorce when the accident took place.
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