TRANSPORT giant Arriva has warned that so called "bus surfing" could result in serious injury or even death after a Star reader pictured a teenager hanging on to the back of a vehicle in the town centre.

The image showed the youth on the rear of a bus that was heading down Bridge Street, St Helens on Thursday afternoon.

The Arriva bus was goining from the town centre to Eccleston and a number of other youths dressed in black appeared to be with the boy.

Readers raised fears his actions could have had dire consequences had he slipped on to what is a busy roundabout. 

A spokesman from Arriva North West said: “Arriva are extremely concerned to see the photograph supplied by a member of the public and would like to thank them for drawing our attention to this.

"Bus surfing is extremely dangerous and can end in serious injury or even death.

“Anyone found to be doing this on an Arriva bus will be reported to the police immediately as it puts both the individual and other road users at risk.”

Police echoed the warning.

Community Sergeant Neil Birkett, from Merseyside Police, said: "We have been made aware of a youth standing on the back of a bus in St Helens while it was moving and that is clearly an extremely dangerous thing to do.

“It not only risks the safety of that youth but could distract the driver while driving and hold up the journey of all passengers on the bus.
"During half term our focus on all forms of anti-social behaviour increases.

"I want to reassure people that we will not tolerate those people who continue to make life difficult for decent people in our communities.

“We are working with partner agencies to ensure we can ensure our communities are safe places to live, concentrating on areas where people have told us they are suffering the effects of this behaviour.

"We will continue to take action whenever the community tells us there are problems.

“I would appeal to anyone with information about anti-social behaviour, and illegal or nuisance scrambler bikes in their areas to get in touch with us and I can assure them that we will take action.

“We would also ask parents and guardians to make sure they know where their children are and who they are with."

Anyone with information can call police via the 101 number, or dial 999 in the event of an emergency or if there is a crime in progress.
Alternatively, people can pass information anonymously to Crimestoppers, 24 hours a day, on 0800 555111.