Rear-ended by a bus, my fault apparently!

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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…
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
Can't you contact the bus company with the bus number and route (and approximate time) and ask them to check their on board tapes?

Is your bike ok? Not a very good attitude from any of them.
 

Davywalnuts

Chief Kebab Taster
Location
Staines!
What a nightmare, am actually getting crossed reading it!!

What gets my goat the most, as its happened to me, is that we are the ones hit upon for a "public order offence" and yet thats just the effect from the cause of the driver, and in this case the other driver who was being a d*ck and couldnt give a sh*t about you or that you could have gone under their bus!

You sure you wouldnt want to take it further with the bus co. as am sure there would be on-board footage?
 

Mike!

Guru
Location
Suffolk
I work for a Bus company and can tell you this would be taken very seriously. All buses in the City have CCTV which will show the driver was in the wrong - take it up with the company if you have the details!
 

downfader

extimus uero philosophus
Location
'ampsheeeer
TC - please for the sake of others consider reporting it! If they ask about you swearing then frankly they have to remember how bl**dy dangerous it is to drive a bus into someone. :girl:

If it's a First bus theres a very high chance there is CCTV on board, sometimes with sound. IIRC you have a legal right to a copy if you're on it too, so play that angle.

Tailgaiting imo is FAR worse when drivers do it to vulnerable groups like us, horse riders and mobility scooters.
 
shippers said:
Hard to imagine when one vehicle hits another from behind and it's not the fault of the one behind.
You weren't in reverse, were you?

I could do that on my fixie if I was any good.:girl:
 

Guvnor

Active Member
Location
Essex
Don't feel guilty at all! As an ex-cycle/motorbike courier(15years) I've had many experiances when it comes to bus drivers. Believe me I would have done a lot more than swear! You should of took his details and report it also, as if he does it again, they will have a record that they are driving eratically. As for the pco's, nothing but posh parking wardens! Useless people who should know better. Hope your ok.
 

iamanidiot

New Member
If you did obtain the footage from the bus company, would you be allowed to put it up on youtube? It would make for one of the more interesting cycling videos up on youtube.
 

Mark_Robson

Senior Member
Guvnor said:
Don't feel guilty at all! As an ex-cycle/motorbike courier(15years) I've had many experiances when it comes to bus drivers. Believe me I would have done a lot more than swear! You should of took his details and report it also as if he does it again, they will have a record that they are driving eratically. As for the pco's, nothing but posh parking wardens! Useless people who should know better. Hope your ok.
+1 If the drivers believes that she is blameless then she needs to be educated.
 

downfader

extimus uero philosophus
Location
'ampsheeeer
iamanidiot said:
If you did obtain the footage from the bus company, would you be allowed to put it up on youtube? It would make for one of the more interesting cycling videos up on youtube.

Might be an issue with the data protection act seeing as its recorded by a private company.. or possibly copyright. You might need legal advice first, or take the video down to the press to highlight "road safety issues". Then the press can deal with the legalities. ;)
 
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