Sunday 17 June 2012

Not the Wright Way to Reverse

How many people have looked at one of the recent (past 5-ish years) products of WrightBus of Ballymena and thought that they have a defective reversing light.  I did, until I realised with horror what was actually going on.


Yes, this vehicle has only one reversing light (lower nearside, fairly standard I'd say).  The white lens at the lower offside contains a red-coated bulb, and is the rear foglight.

So why is this a problem?  Cars have had red or orange bulbs shining through clear lenses for many years.  The problem is that in many bus stations and bus garages across the country, you will see signs "reversing buses have priority" which is completely at odds with Highway Code Rule 202 which essentially obliges the reversing vehicle to give priority to any other vehicle or pedestrian.

Yet in these bus stations and bus garages across the country, bus drivers (following the instructions and policy they are obliged to) put a vehicle into reverse, release the handbrake and move backwards - all other buses being expected to be aware of this and give way to the reversing bus.

How does one know whether a bus is moving backwards?  Any reversing light being lit.  Conversely, a reverse light that isn't illuminated implies a vehicle that isn't reversing.  In some layouts and some light conditions, it may not even be possible to see the nearside reversing light anyway.  Also note that many drivers in a particular bus station may not be aware of this bizarre white lens foglight arrangement, as they may be on a different rota (or even from a different company) to the drivers that have been inducted on these Wright vehicles.

I call upon WrightBus to acknowledge with hindsight that these stylish white light covers are dangerous when used within the bus industry, and for them to prepare red lens covers and send to every vehicle with these rear clusters.  The alternative is to put a reversing light bulb and the red fog light bulb inside the same lens (which I am sure is possible) then every angle is covered.

I am of course aware that UK law doesn't infact require any working reversing lights at all - however when Health & Safety is paramount, I think that others need as much information as possible that 12 tonnes of bus is about to reverse into their path.

There is nothing at all wrong with making a mistake (car manufacturers do recalls all the time) - what matters is how this is dealt with.

The photograph I have linked to is from flickr user AndrewHA.

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