Aston Villa fan sacked after 10 bus crashes
AN Aston Villa fan was sacked from his bus driver job after ten crashes in two years.But accident prone Clifford Pullen, aged 56, was awarded almost £500 compensation after a tribunal ruled that he was unfairly dismissed.
The Birmingham employment tribunal heard that Mr Pullen had so many crashes his employer, LMS Travel Ltd, saw its insurance premium soar from £22,000 to £35,000 a year.
One brought traffic in the busy town of Worcester to a standstill, while on the last occasion Mr Pullen allegedly fell asleep at the wheel and collided with a stationary BMW which was flipped into the garden of a family home, it was told.
The firm said he was given several verbal warnings about his driving and, following a final warning, it dismissed him because it feared someone would be seriously injured.
But the tribunal ruled that it had failed to carry out the correct the disciplinary and dismissal procedure when sacking Mr Pullen, who lives in Worcester but is thought to be originally from Birmingham. As a result he had been unfairly dismissed.
Today Mr Pullen, who claimed compensation for unfair dismissal and breach of contract for unfair treatment, insisted not all of the accidents were his fault and that some were due to his diabetes.
Proudly wearing his Aston Villa shirt, Mr Pullen said: “I’m glad I won, all I wanted to do was clear my name.
“ I’d had no problem until the last two years when I was diagnosed with diabetes. It makes you go unconscious for a little while. In that last crash I woke up just before I hit the car, but not in time to miss it.”
The tribunal heard that Mr Pullen, was involved in five accidents in 2008, two in 2007 and three in 2006.
