Screeeeeeech! Bus does an emergency stop while overtaking me!

[Amanda P]

This actually happened a few weeks ago. I think I've recovered from the shock by now.

So I'm cycling home from work. It's dark. I'm approaching a bend in the road as it approaches a village. Behind me, some way back is the 181 village bus (hardly more than a minibus, really), and some more cars behind it.

Now this bend can be nasty, because drivers feel they can overtake on it, even though they can't see what's coming the other way. It's a tighter bend than you think it's going to be, so you can't see oncoming headlight beams until their owner is on top of you. When I'm driving it, I can see why - it's deceptive. Cycling, I usually take a robust primary position through it for this reason.

Apparently, this bus driver thought the laws of physics didn't apply to him, because he passes me on the bend. He was well out in the other lane, moving at about 40 mph to overtake.

And there was a car coming the other way.

Fair dos to the bus driver. He didn't squash me out of the way or make a futile attempt to get past me before meeting the car. He just braked. Hard enough to skid for a good three seconds or so.

Is there any sound more scary than that screech? Knowing that there's five or six tons of bus behind you where you can't easily see it, skidding, so that the driver is not in control of it?

I only hope there was no-one standing up on the bus at the time. There were no faces mashed against the windscreen when it did pass me a few seconds later, but there were some pale-looking ones on board.... The driver of the car must have been a bit surprised, too, to find a bus heading straight for him on the wrong side of the road.

Ah well.

 

[Tynan]

oh dear

overtaking on a bend full stop

never mind bad ones in the dark

 

[wafflycat]

Motor vehicles overtaking on bends is one of the things that shocks me. I really, really don't understand the mentality of attempting it. It's something I just wouldn't do when driving. Plainly dangerous driving to do it.

 

[Wolf04]

It's the one that scares me the most. I have a sweeping bend on my commute which is completely blind in both directions. I've been overtaken so many times in either direction by impatient drivers that my strong primary has become the white line in the centre of the road. It's also the spot that gets most use of the Airzound!

 

[Pete]

Is there any sound more scary than that screech?

There's a difference between screeching brakes and skidding. I wonder if the bus was actually skidding (any skid marks on the road?) or just doing an emergency stop - scary but less dangerous? I don't know whether buses have ABS. Ah well, at least you all came out of it still alive...

I only hope there was no-one standing up on the bus at the time..

Reminds me of the time I was once poleaxed on a bus (many years ago). I had just got up from my seat and rung the bell, the bus was slowing and almost stopped at the bus-stop - when it suddenly accelerated away without stopping. It seemed, there were two bus-stops, serving different bus companies, one just before a side road on the left, and one just after. The driver realised he'd pulled up at the wrong bus-stop, the first one, and he claimed afterwards that he had to 'go by the book' or some such, and go on to the second bus stop after the side road. Unfortunately, at that moment a following van driver, seeing the bus apparently stopping at the first bus stop, took it upon himself to overtake at that point and then turn left into the side road. Bus slams into side of van, I go sprawling in front of all the other passengers. At least I wasn't hurt, nor was anyone else, though I was extremely angry. I gave my name to the van driver (though he was partly to blame) but never heard any more.

 

[magnatom]

Sounds nasty!

I've been lucky and never had a situation like that (yet). I suppose my roads are more urban and almost exclusively 30mph limited.

 

[Arch]

Yikes Uncle Phil!

I was out in a car once, saw a coach attempt a stupid overtake and then slam the brakes on, some way ahead, and by the time we passed it had pulled into a layby - I wondered if some poor passenger had been hurt - even if you weren't standing, you could fetch your head a nasty whack on the seatback in front of you.

 

[Tynan]

I ran (drunk) for an old routemaster once, chased at full sprint and got one hand on the pole, at which point it changed gear, pulling off my feet and dumping in the road, burst my belt buckle

otherwise unhurt, I never used to get hurt when drunk despite desperate accidents, some while drunk on the bike

when I was youngish and foolish natch

 

[Amanda P]

There were skid marks the following morning.

On the road, I hasten to add...

 

[gbb]

There were skid marks the following morning.

On the road, I hasten to add...

My only incident ike that was a driver coming up behind me fast...going to overtake..then changed his mind RIGHT behind me (he realised he was too fast to overtake me and make the next exit he needed ) All i heard was an almighty screech
In those few seconds..you wait for the impact
I symathise...its scary.

 

[goo_mason]

Two boy-racers in their not-yet-fully-made-over Corsas overtook me on a 90-degree bend on Friday on my way home. I heard them coming, so thankfully I'd had the sense to brake as the second one tried to squeeze around the bend and clipped the apex about 2 metres ahead of me. Could have been me gettng clipped otherwise.

For once I found the AirZound trigger without fumbling and gave the tw@t a good blast. Trouble was that he had no idea who had beeped at him - I could see him looking around in a panic expecting an artic to hit him from behind. Had I not had to keep both hands on the bars on the corner I'd have been gesticulating too and he'd have known. But perhaps it's better that he thought someone else other than a bike was berating him for his sheer, suicidal stupidity.

Defo going to be looking into a helmet cam once I get the road bike in the next few months...

 

[Amanda P]

My only incident ike that was a driver coming up behind me fast...going to overtake..then changed his mind RIGHT behind me (he realised he was too fast to overtake me and make the next exit he needed ) All i heard was an almighty screech
In those few seconds..you wait for the impact
I symathise...its scary.

Funnily enough, I had one of those too, about a week before the bus incident. On quite a different stretch of road.