REGARDING your report (LET, March 24) "Operation Coachman" -- its examination of 35 school buses showed a third were defective and dangerous, and were immediately banned from service.

The defects apparently were the braking systems, steering mechanism, and several with 'bald' tyres.

Do the vehicles still have annual maintenance checks by the vehicle licensing officers and, if so, why so high a percentage of defective buses? I would have thought most of the coaches are used solely for school contracts and that mileage would not be excessive.

I was also concerned that several buses had bald tyres -- smooth even. They have not become in this condition overnight and I am surprised that simple defects of this nature had not been detected by traffic patrols.

If the dodgy operators continue to cut corners to allow vehicles to endanger school children's lives, then the answer is to ban the issue of operators' licences indefinitely.

I was surprised to see the quote from the police sergeant who stated that the operators of the dangerous buses "may" face prosecution. Surely, it should have been "will".

D MOSS, Whalley Old Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.