ES: "Bus safety inspections branded a disaster by director of Metroline"
 

From today's Standard:

---quote---
Tom Harper, Investigations Reporter
13 Jan 2011

The Government is to investigate one of London's biggest bus companies
after it described one of its safety inspections as a “disaster”.

Documents leaked to the Standard suggest vehicle checks were not
properly carried out and that drivers failed to report problems which
could threaten passenger safety. Minutes from a senior management
meeting at Metroline, which runs more than 1,000 buses in the capital,
disclosed that 25 per cent of vehicles inspected had a “serious
defect” and were unfit to be on the road. The company said the note
referred to an inspection of four vehicles and only one had a problem.
[...continues...]
---/quote---

The rest of the piece can be read he
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23913717-.do

The story seems a little confused, particularly w.r.t. how many actual
buses this internal report referred to - Metroline being keen to say
that the minutes are "being completely taken out of context”. It does
seem a bit odd to refer to one out of four vehicles as 25% of an
inspection, but that said odd terminology being used in 'management
speak' is hardly that unusual. (Anyhow, talking of terminology -
'management speak'... I'm sounding like a tabloid sub!)