#Bus driver dies of coronavirus drivers#
Potters Bar driver Kevin Mustafa recalls busy sign-on areas and ferry cars (taking drivers to their bus vehicles) that breached social distancing guidelines. Back at the garages, Kenyon explains, drivers shared crowded canteens, mess rooms and toilets. In addition to the risk of infection from passengers and from common “touch points” on bus vehicles, there were frequent bus changeovers between drivers. Unable to source medical grade face masks, Leshie bought her father a lycra mask from Amazon, “so it wasn’t medical grade, and it definitely wasn’t suitable for someone working in such a dangerous environment.” Leshie describes her father, denied hand sanitiser at work, scrubbing his hands so frequently that they became “cracked and wounded… they bled”. But when it came to workplace protections from the deadly coronavirus, Ranjith and his colleagues were left defenceless. As Kenyon explains, “Ranjith was in effect the ferrying service for frontline medical staff and the sick”. Ranjith drove the 92 bus-route that began and ended at Ealing’s Central Middlesex Hospital in west London. He later migrated to the UK, started a family, and worked in various trades before becoming a proud London bus driver in 2007. Kenyon begins this story in Sri Lanka, where 14-year-old Ranjith dreamed of living in Britain and of riding one of London’s famous red buses. Their plight is told by Leshie Chandrapala, the daughter of bus driver Ranjith Chandrapala, 64, who died on May 3, during the pandemic’s first wave. They also interview the scientists and whistleblowers whose warnings were ignored.Īt the heart of the story are the preventable deaths of 69 London bus workers, 54 of whom were drivers. The BBC’s investigative team shows how the pandemic was experienced by London’s bus drivers and their families. What follows offers an unmistakeable answer, presenting what amounts to an indictment of the bus companies, Transport for London (TfL), the office of Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Unite the union and Public Health England. “Did the companies do all they could to protect their drivers once they knew the danger?”, Kenyon asks as the programme begins. The episode starts with a little-known fact: that London’s bus drivers have died during the pandemic at a rate similar to frontline nurses. “ Occupational Hazard: The bus drivers who died from Covid ”, was produced by Annabel Deas with BAFTA-winning journalist Paul Kenyon for BBC 4’s current affairs programme, File On 4. It was hard-hitting journalism, offering a rare platform on the mainstream media for the voices, views and insights of bus workers and their families. On Tuesday night, BBC Radio 4 aired the results of its months-long investigation into the deaths of 54 London bus drivers.
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