TwickenhamCyclist
Guest
Rear-ended by a bus, my fault apparently!
Just had an gentle shunt from behind by one of our local bus drivers, and then go moaned at by her and her colleague (who was driving in the opposite direction) and then got FA response (other than to tell me off for swearing) from the Police Support Officers travelling on bus No2
Cycling towards Twickenham, along Richmond Road, just outside The Crown for those who know it, pinch point, mini RAB then another pinch point. First pinch point, aware of bus a little close behind, thought they might be trying an overtake on approach to RAB – the road really narrows here and is literally the width of a bus if not a little less, so I stayed in primary, straight over RAB, onto next narrow stretch and stuck my arm out to turn left into pub car park, heard a beep from the bus behind, looked round to see she was extremely close behind me, and then she bumped into me. I stopped and looked around, didn’t say a word. Wasn’t a big bump but I was a little shocked/surprised.
DRIVER 1: That was your fault, why did you stop.
ME: Because you just hit me.
Oncoming driver stops and leans out of window.
DRIVER 2: (to me) I saw that, your bang out of order, it was your fault.
ME (confused) What, for turning left?
Drivers then start exchanging details and No2 starts telling No1 he saw it all and will stick up for her etc…
At no point did driver enquire if I was OK, or if bike was damaged, or apologise – just quick to blame me.
I was calm and polite.
At this point two PCSOs get off bus No2. Asked what happened and I told them the bus was trying to overtake and/or driving too close and simply went into the back of me.
Bus drivers join in – with silly statements such as “he was in the road” etc??? WTF is that supposed to mean – of course I was “in the road”.
PCSOs say they didn’t see anything (fair enough) and just tell me to move out of the road – they were completely ****ing uninterested, just as I would expect, so I just wheeled my bike up to the lamp post to lock it up and go into The Crown. Bus drivers both stayed still – PCSOs just stood there staring. I started to walk off.
Bus driver one shouts to PCSOs “Is his bike damaged or what, can I go? I need to get on?”
PCSO looks at me, so I just shout back at driver/PCSO “It’s not damaged, so she can just **** Off” (I know, not big, not clever, but seeing as everyone else seemed to have a flippant attitude I thought I’d join in, and it made me feel better)
PCSO then tells me it’s not polite to use such language in front of her – fair point – and I told her (so driver could hear) it wasn’t polite to drive a ****ing bus right up my arse and hit me – second warning about swearing – said words to the effect of that I thought in the grand scheme of things telling people to **** off was a lesser evil than driving buses into them.
PCSO asked me if I wanted to do anything about it – I said as there was no damage I felt that would be a waste of time – PCSO said something about complaining to bus company if I wanted – again pointless.
The bus drivers were out of order, and I'm really pissed off by thier attitude and the fact i can do nothing (legally) about it, but I feel guilty now about swearing in front of the PCSO – so for what it’s worth apologies to her…
Just had an gentle shunt from behind by one of our local bus drivers, and then go moaned at by her and her colleague (who was driving in the opposite direction) and then got FA response (other than to tell me off for swearing) from the Police Support Officers travelling on bus No2
Cycling towards Twickenham, along Richmond Road, just outside The Crown for those who know it, pinch point, mini RAB then another pinch point. First pinch point, aware of bus a little close behind, thought they might be trying an overtake on approach to RAB – the road really narrows here and is literally the width of a bus if not a little less, so I stayed in primary, straight over RAB, onto next narrow stretch and stuck my arm out to turn left into pub car park, heard a beep from the bus behind, looked round to see she was extremely close behind me, and then she bumped into me. I stopped and looked around, didn’t say a word. Wasn’t a big bump but I was a little shocked/surprised.
DRIVER 1: That was your fault, why did you stop.
ME: Because you just hit me.
Oncoming driver stops and leans out of window.
DRIVER 2: (to me) I saw that, your bang out of order, it was your fault.
ME (confused) What, for turning left?
Drivers then start exchanging details and No2 starts telling No1 he saw it all and will stick up for her etc…
At no point did driver enquire if I was OK, or if bike was damaged, or apologise – just quick to blame me.
I was calm and polite.
At this point two PCSOs get off bus No2. Asked what happened and I told them the bus was trying to overtake and/or driving too close and simply went into the back of me.
Bus drivers join in – with silly statements such as “he was in the road” etc??? WTF is that supposed to mean – of course I was “in the road”.
PCSOs say they didn’t see anything (fair enough) and just tell me to move out of the road – they were completely ****ing uninterested, just as I would expect, so I just wheeled my bike up to the lamp post to lock it up and go into The Crown. Bus drivers both stayed still – PCSOs just stood there staring. I started to walk off.
Bus driver one shouts to PCSOs “Is his bike damaged or what, can I go? I need to get on?”
PCSO looks at me, so I just shout back at driver/PCSO “It’s not damaged, so she can just **** Off” (I know, not big, not clever, but seeing as everyone else seemed to have a flippant attitude I thought I’d join in, and it made me feel better)
PCSO then tells me it’s not polite to use such language in front of her – fair point – and I told her (so driver could hear) it wasn’t polite to drive a ****ing bus right up my arse and hit me – second warning about swearing – said words to the effect of that I thought in the grand scheme of things telling people to **** off was a lesser evil than driving buses into them.
PCSO asked me if I wanted to do anything about it – I said as there was no damage I felt that would be a waste of time – PCSO said something about complaining to bus company if I wanted – again pointless.
The bus drivers were out of order, and I'm really pissed off by thier attitude and the fact i can do nothing (legally) about it, but I feel guilty now about swearing in front of the PCSO – so for what it’s worth apologies to her…