Bump free career for bus driver

Peter Nedin said he had driven most of the routes in the city

A bus driver who has travelled almost a million miles during his 40 years at the wheel has never been involved in a traffic accident of his making.

Peter Nedin, known as Elvis to his colleagues, says the secret of his success is anticipating what other motorists will do - before they do it.

He has received a safe driving award from his employers First Cymru.

The 63-year-old from St Thomas, Swansea, said since he started in 1969 buses had become much easier to drive.

He has lived and worked all his life in the city and wanted to become a bus driver whilst still in school.

Mr Nedin has been awarded a special medal by First Cymru in recognition of both his long service with the company and his skills as a safe driver.

"I've driven lots of different routes in my time, including many around Gower and Swansea," he said.

"These days I tend to work on the school and college services in Swansea, but I still get the same thrill every time I go out on the road."

Improvements

He said the biggest changes he had seen during his career was the ending of conductors on buses and improvements in the buses he drives.

"The Bristols had very old mechanical gear boxes - they were hard to drive," he said.

"Today all the buses have power assisted steering - its like driving a car."

Tony McNiff, managing director of First Cymru, said: "Peter is a credit both to himself and this company.

"Not many people can say that they have a 40 year safe driving record, particularly when they drive for a living, clocking up far more miles than the average person."

The company said the average bus driver covers 100 miles every day.

Over 40 years it equates to an average of 940,000 miles and while Peter now works part time, in his younger days he did a lot of overtime so it was likely that he had driven almost one million miles.