I work in a small rural town in Hertforshire and commute there by bicycle from my home, a distance of 7 miles. Two weeks ago cycling to work I had an incident with a bus which still leaves me shaken and angry. I was cycling downhill on a semi rural single lane road at about 25mph. As it was 8.30 there was some traffic, however the three cars behind waited until there was a gap in the oncoming traffic and overtook safely leaving me plenty of room. I estimate I might have added 10 seconds to their journey. The bus that came afterwards decided not to wait for a safe gap and instead overtook me so close I crashed into the kerb and fell off, fortunately with no serious injuries other than bruises and scuffed clothing. The bike was scraped on the forks and frame where I had fallen off.
After calming myself down and checking that everything with both me and my bike was functional I set off for work. My route to work takes me past the main bus stop in the town where the bus that had just nearly killed me was now parked.
I stopped and asked the driver was he aware that he had caused an accident. His response to this was incredible I was told I was holding up traffic and cyclists shouldn't be allowed on the road.
I was livid and was about to lose control when I spied the keys. I don't know what possessed me but I snatched the keys to the bus and said "Well you're not going to run any other cyclists today" and with that I leapt on my bicycle and pedalled off as fast as possible with the bus driver yelling abuse at me. This abuse increased in volume as I threw the keys into the river.
The main bus depot is in a town 15 miles away from the town where I work and the bus that I disabled was the bus back to the depot. I don't know what excuse the bus driver had for losing his keys or how he got back to the depot. The bus was still there 2 days later however.
Was I wrong?
Bicycle versus the bus
-
Dai
-
eileithyia
- Posts: 8399
- Joined: 31 Jan 2007, 6:46pm
- Location: Horwich Which is Lancs :-)
signola: three points:
1. In my, non legal opinion, you were right to take the keys to prevent the committing of a crime - i.e. not reporting an accident involving an injury.
2. You were wrong to throw them in the river and should have reported the accident immediately to the police and you should now have some lawyers working (for free) on your behalf for some compensation. I presume there were no witnesses.
3. The bus overtook you too closely. How did this come to happen? Surely this is something we have to discuss. I believe that on narrow roads you must ride in such a way that vehicles are forced to overtake on the other side of the road. I come across this time after time. I would love to make things easier for cars to pass slowly and carefully but they just abuse your moving over by passing too fast and too closely.
Hope your bruises heal quickly!
1. In my, non legal opinion, you were right to take the keys to prevent the committing of a crime - i.e. not reporting an accident involving an injury.
2. You were wrong to throw them in the river and should have reported the accident immediately to the police and you should now have some lawyers working (for free) on your behalf for some compensation. I presume there were no witnesses.
3. The bus overtook you too closely. How did this come to happen? Surely this is something we have to discuss. I believe that on narrow roads you must ride in such a way that vehicles are forced to overtake on the other side of the road. I come across this time after time. I would love to make things easier for cars to pass slowly and carefully but they just abuse your moving over by passing too fast and too closely.
Hope your bruises heal quickly!
Signola,
I love your attitude and the guts that you showed in taking the action that you did.
Next time, however, may I respectfully suggest that you inform the Police of any similiar incident. You may well have turned a stupid, bullish no-brain bus driver into a cyclist hating murderer and furthermore he has a large, heavy and very hard weapon at his disposal.
I love your attitude and the guts that you showed in taking the action that you did.
Next time, however, may I respectfully suggest that you inform the Police of any similiar incident. You may well have turned a stupid, bullish no-brain bus driver into a cyclist hating murderer and furthermore he has a large, heavy and very hard weapon at his disposal.
Best Wishes
Paul
Paul
-
Mrs Tortoise
- Posts: 453
- Joined: 8 Jan 2007, 11:44pm
- Location: Dorchester, Dorset
Signola, I accept you were angry with the loutish bus driver but your actions were wrong. If you had complained to the bus company you would have retained the moral high ground, in stealing his keys and losing them any sympathy you might have been able to use will have been lost.
Terrorism gets headlines but entrenches attitudes, education changes them. We need to win hearts and minds not harden attititudes.
Terrorism gets headlines but entrenches attitudes, education changes them. We need to win hearts and minds not harden attititudes.
Re: Bicycle versus the bus
signola wrote:I work in a small rural town in Hertforshire and commute there by bicycle from my home, a distance of 7 miles. Two weeks ago cycling to work I had an incident with a bus which still leaves me shaken and angry. I was cycling downhill on a semi rural single lane road at about 25mph. As it was 8.30 there was some traffic, however the three cars behind waited until there was a gap in the oncoming traffic and overtook safely leaving me plenty of room. I estimate I might have added 10 seconds to their journey. The bus that came afterwards decided not to wait for a safe gap and instead overtook me so close I crashed into the kerb and fell off, fortunately with no serious injuries other than bruises and scuffed clothing. The bike was scraped on the forks and frame where I had fallen off.
After calming myself down and checking that everything with both me and my bike was functional I set off for work. My route to work takes me past the main bus stop in the town where the bus that had just nearly killed me was now parked.
I stopped and asked the driver was he aware that he had caused an accident. His response to this was incredible I was told I was holding up traffic and cyclists shouldn't be allowed on the road.
I was livid and was about to lose control when I spied the keys. I don't know what possessed me but I snatched the keys to the bus and said "Well you're not going to run any other cyclists today" and with that I leapt on my bicycle and pedalled off as fast as possible with the bus driver yelling abuse at me. This abuse increased in volume as I threw the keys into the river.
The main bus depot is in a town 15 miles away from the town where I work and the bus that I disabled was the bus back to the depot. I don't know what excuse the bus driver had for losing his keys or how he got back to the depot. The bus was still there 2 days later however.
Was I wrong?
Congratulations. You have successfully confirmed the bus driver's suspicions and prejudices.
What you did was wrong and I suspect is technically theft. Are you prepared to foot the bill for the recovery of the bus in exchange for the bus company paying for a respray to your biek. I suspect that you would be considerably out of pocket.
There are legal means of making a protest. I suggest that you stick to using them in the future. You have done a great disservice to you local cycling community with your rash actions.
-
thirdcrank
- Posts: 36780
- Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm
-
Lusting my Pinnarello
- Posts: 266
- Joined: 5 Jan 2007, 4:53pm
- Location: Rotherham, South Yorkshire
I initially laughed my guts out... then i read all the other comments.
The fact is you should have reported this to the police AND bus company. Gaining from the police AN ACCIDENT REPORT reference number. With this they HAVE to investigate it. and especially with HIS words of "cyclists should be on the road" this to me shows he is guilt of coming too close and this deams to be a DELIBERATE act. You have misjudged the opportunity (easy said days/weeks after the crash)
He may well have been sacked.
The fact is you should have reported this to the police AND bus company. Gaining from the police AN ACCIDENT REPORT reference number. With this they HAVE to investigate it. and especially with HIS words of "cyclists should be on the road" this to me shows he is guilt of coming too close and this deams to be a DELIBERATE act. You have misjudged the opportunity (easy said days/weeks after the crash)
He may well have been sacked.
I'd love to have seen the expression on the guy's face -and perhaps he'll remember it next time he's tempted to cut one of us up!
Bus companies have a huge insurance bill each year. They are desparate to reduce this and one way is to implement a training and disciplinary system to ensure that their drivers are not likely to get into accidents, especially with cyclists and pedestrians.
If you had reported the incident to the bus company then I am sure that they would come don like tone of bricks on the driver involved.
better still, get your local Cycle Campaign group to liaise with the bus company. In Warrington we recently developed a leaflet for bus drivers and cyclists to make them more aware of their respective needs for clearance, etc. It was enthusiastically supported by the local bus company who printed leaflets for distribution to cyclists and bus drivers.
Best regards
Rod King - Warrington
If you had reported the incident to the bus company then I am sure that they would come don like tone of bricks on the driver involved.
better still, get your local Cycle Campaign group to liaise with the bus company. In Warrington we recently developed a leaflet for bus drivers and cyclists to make them more aware of their respective needs for clearance, etc. It was enthusiastically supported by the local bus company who printed leaflets for distribution to cyclists and bus drivers.
Best regards
Rod King - Warrington