Result!

[Vikeonabike]

Had a bit of a near miss on my commute into work yesterday with a rather large coach. Driver seemed to think it was acceptable to overtake me whilst I was in secondary with less than a foot of room. I took avoiding action by moving onto the white line, so the driver moves over too!
Long and short of it was a very angry letter to the company concerned, and a relply within six hours stating that the driver had been interviewed, found to have been driving at a standard far below what the company expected, driver has been disciplined and apologies offered! I'm more than happy with the outcome (due to lack of headcam footage)!
Just waiting to hear from the skip hire company from the previous day! Must get a headcam!

 

[punkedmonkey]

Wow... thats a quick response! 6 hours!! All credit to the coach company. I get the impression that some companies take the standards of their drivers quite seriously (and so they should!) - probably because they do not want to be exposed to any liability or ruining of their reputation by having one of their employees kill/maim someone.

 

[Gandalf]

Had a bit of a near miss on my commute into work yesterday with a rather large coach. Driver seemed to think it was acceptable to overtake me whilst I was in secondary with less than a foot of room. I took avoiding action by moving onto the white line, so the driver moves over too!
Long and short of it was a very angry letter to the company concerned, and a relply within six hours stating that the driver had been interviewed, found to have been driving at a standard far below what the company expected, driver has been disciplined and apologies offered! I'm more than happy with the outcome (due to lack of headcam footage)!
Just waiting to hear from the skip hire company from the previous day! Must get a headcam!

Excellent result. Did they corroborate your version of events via onboard video or did the driver fess up?

 

[Trevrev]

Sounds exactly like the same response i got from our local bus company here in Southampton a couple of weeks ago.
I had a close call from a bus and and sent an angry e-mail to them. Got a reply a few hours later saying the driver had been interviewed and disiplined. Loads of apologies and all that.
Must be a standard thing that bus and coach companies say to "Please".

 

[400bhp]

It sounds like the driver has done it before and had similar complaints or they were looking for an excuse to discipline him.

Good result nevertheless.

 

[BentMikey]

Nice work!

 

[Mike!]

I work for a bus company and can tell you we take these things very seriously, as has been said the last thing you need is to maim / kill someone, especially through and act of stupidity.

It also helps that i control our onboard CCTV so anything to do with cyclists gets priority

 

[2Loose]

Its nice to hear that from the horses mouth (so to speak) Mike! I have always wondered if these letters were merely in order to placate people - great to know it really is taken very seriously.

 

[Dayvo]

Must get a headcam!

But I bet the flashing blue light on your helmet helps!

 

[ColinJ]

But I bet the flashing blue light on your helmet helps!

Being a bit of a cynic, I did wonder if Vike mentioned what job he was commuting to!

 

[XmisterIS]

Being a bit of a cynic, I did wonder if Vike mentioned what job he was commuting to!

Not cynical at all ... I think the major, major flaw in the thinking of the "bloody-cyclist-get-off-the-road-I-pay-road-tax" brigade is that they believe that all cyclists are sandal-wearing vegan militant eco-warrior car-hating hippies with attitude. The next time they mutter a few swear words and drive aggressively around/at an effin' cyclist, they might pause and wonder who that really person is.

 

[Brains]

It sounds to me like might not have been the first time .....

On a secondary note, I'm also aware the coach/bus companies take this issue seriously.
A mate of mine was a driver for one of the London bus companies
As a teenager he was a bit of a wild driver, so not really suitable for the job in my opinion.
When driving his bus he hit a man crossing the road who was quite seriously hurt.
In the court case it was down as a 'no fault to either side' situation
(Driver should have predicted pedestrian would try and run across road in front of him)
End result is he was told he was not longer going to drive for the bus company again but he could have a garage job.
He is now a copper for the Met, driving high speed persuit cars.

 

[fossyant]

It does work - carefully worded email about not the standard of driving you'd expect from a professional etc.

Good result.

 

[Vikeonabike]

Being a bit of a cynic, I did wonder if Vike mentioned what job he was commuting to!

I didn't actually state I was a police officer, however it was sent from my work e-mail address

 

[ttcycle]

I didn't actually state I was a police officer, however it was sent from my work e-mail address

Hah!

Such a giveaway!

Glad you got a result though!