So do I phone the Police?

I have a witness whogave me his number. I have the reg of the car and the phone number of the lady driving.

The story is, I am in the bus lane going down hill, she is to the right of me, cuts across the bus lane to left in front of me (even though she has just over taken me). I managed to avoid a collision with some serious braking and swerving (even managed to stretch the cables a little).

The lady apologised, but changed her story half way through. firstly she said that she hadn’t seen me and was concentrating on the car behind her. After getting the number of the witness (another cyclist who had the same thing happen to him, but wasn’t as lucky as me) she changed the story to she had seen me and was trying to move around me.

Now she seemed pretty shaken up after I shouted at her (i was pumped up on adrenaline at the time), so has she learned her lesson or should I take it further.

What got me going at the time was thinking about the poor chap cycling in town (Aylesbury) who had his head taken clean off by a Tesco’s lorry doing a similar manouvre.

Your thoughts please.

happens all the time to me. dont think the police can do much really unless you hit the car. i live by the shouting wildly and abusively will hopefully make you think twice about your stupid manouvre mantra.

Doubt the police will really do anything seeing as there wasn’t a collision.

Yup – been there myself a few times – went over the boot lid one time when I was young. I think she probably shocked her enough to think twice and you probably dont want the hassle of making a statement and witnesses etc. If she hit you and damaged something then I would def. report it – From frequent commuter 😉

If she was shook up leave it at that. Maybe report it if she hit you and caused damage, but otherwise not.

We all make mistakes when driving, some worse than others.

Take it further? Where you injured or anything on your bike broken? Was she drunk?
I have just made my mate a cup of tea. He asked for coffee. I made a mistake. Should I be given a verbal warning from my line manager?

Not sure what you think the police will do. You are are essentially reporting a non-accident as no vehicles collided with each other, no one fell off and no vehicle or person was injured.

‘Fraid you just got to suck it up and learn to have a sixth sense for the numpties – after all it’s the rider that always comes off worse.

Who knows if she’s learnt her lesson, I doubt involving the police will achieve anything other than wasting 5 minutes of their time, but if it makes you feel better then go for it.

So she didn’t actually hit you then…?
You vented your anger.
At least she apologised.
Happens all the time.

Well it is driving without due care and attention surely? I imagine the poice would only do anything if they saw it happen themselves though.

ok, i’ve got one for you:

was on the commute home last week and turned left onto the main road where a bus was dropping off/picking up. no sign of movement out so move out into the oncoming lane but as i do so he indicates to move out but has to halt as he then sees me putting the power down to get passed (already halfway up the bus & in oncoming traffic).

anyway i make it passed him and move kerbside to allow him to pass. which he does. at the next bus stop he then decides to move right in front of me as he pulls over to the bus stop, causing me to have to mount the pavement in order to prevent being squished. i pull up to the door of the now stationary bus and ask the driver what he was doing – he obviously knew i was there from the previous incident. at which he blatently tells me that he f’kin hate cyclists, they always cut him up, shouldn’t be on the road and that he did what he did on purpose. returned fire with my own barrage of abuse (not suitable for the forum) and then jumped back on the road in front of him at a speed of approx 5mph.

all my mates said i shouldve shopped him – but i was a bit skeptical about whether that would have achieved anything. was i right??

peachos, I had a bus driver come straight at me outside the depot (my right of way). Shopped him to his boss, the boss phoned me the next day and said that they had given him a disciplinary for it. Told me to report any driver that does it as they are having a real problem with their attitudes towards other road users and it is damaging the public’s view of the company. This was Arriva by the way.

at which he blatently tells me that he f’kin hate cyclists, they always cut him up, shouldn’t be on the road and that he did what he did on purpose.

Did he have a bus full of passengers/witnesses at the point where he openly admitted attemtped murder?

all my mates said i shouldve shopped him – but i was a bit skeptical about whether that would have achieved anything. was i right??

Er.. apart from get him sacked so he can no longer use his massive bus as a weapon?

yeah looking back maybe i should have taken the bus number but i was blinded by the red mist! was quite tempted to drag him off the bus but he was bigger than me

peachos……..dont know how you resisted pulling the lardy bstd out of his little cabin where he feels all safe and sound as if he rules the bus lane and put him under the bus.

Sorry to any bus drivers reading….I dont expect you’re all lardy and complete kn*bheads, infact some of you are very respectful to cyclists, thank you.

and the bus was full it was the 85 from manchester at about 530! full of witnesses no doubt.

Peachos, I don’t understand. Did he not indicate, was passing you when he stopped or something? Surely you have to expect that a bus may stop at bus stops and give them more space.

The bus driver does sound like a bit of a tard though.

dave c, of course i do – i’m always wary of busses pulling in or out, who wouldn’t be. as he overtook me he started to pull over, basically making sure there was nowhere for me to go except up the kirb. he knew exactly what he was doing and was his payback for having to wait a whole three seconds before setting off again at the previous bus stop as i got passed him.

Peachos – similar thing happened to me, think he actually mounted the bus onto the kerb showing me how “big” and “hard” he was. Alas, the letter to his boss (maybe pretending to cc in the police helped) and the witness statement earned him a disiplinary.

If one busdriver thinks before ‘playing’ with bike riders next time then it’s worth it.

You never know, it might have been his final warning before sacking for example.

As to OP – it’s a near miss, consider yourself lucky she even stoppped. She might have learnt her lesson.

I got hit like this two weeks ago, no bus lane tho, stupid bint over took and then turned left litterally driving into me, luckily didnt hit the black stuff.

Funny thing was she beeped her horn at me after she’d hit me! then stopped blocking two lanes of traffic got out her car and told me i should have indictaed i was going straight on – on the same road duh!

Put it down to good luck i didnt hit the floor, expressed myself with a few angry words and rude hand gestures [the woman behind throught this was very funny!] and left her to the by now very large traffic jam she’d caused and went on my way…

Peachos, my mother in law had a run in with a less than considerate bus driver, she reported him and got a very nice letter back appolgizing and stating the driver had been disciplined, they (bus company) have a high profile public image, which would be tarnished by running over cyclists and the like, shop him! if he’s a serial offender times up, if not, it might realign his attitude.

What gets me about this is that if reported with an independent witness something should be done. It’s driving without due care and attention at the end of the day and could have lethal consequences for someone.

I’m sure the CPS wouldn’t prosecute it though hence there is no point the police wasting their time. A shame really. I think a few high profile cases of people being done for things like this might make people think about bikes a bit more.

i had similar with a bus driver and one of the passengers getting off the bus saw him do it and laugh .. I actuall stood half in the bus half out whilst conversing.
He also called me a c*nt (amazingly I did not swear) and told me that next time he would not miss.
I got the names of 7 passengers to this and followed him to the depot where two other passengers walked with him (and me)to the office (he was very sheepish bythis point and started apologising but it fell on deaf ears)
We spoke to his boss about what he had done ..he was sent home [sacked later]at the time for the offence as he admitted it he then threw (a very pathetic fat mans slow )punch at me and tried to start a fight ….ahh the joys of commuting

in essence report them if you can you have nothing to lose and perhaps the accounts will mount up over time. and result in something
I think we have all been hit by someone turning left at some point sadly

Had a bus try to run me off the road in a similar manner to peachos and driver just shrugged when i asked him what he was doing.
Also had a woman do the same thing as OP, overtake me then turn into her drive, her excuse was white van man behind her was too close for her to brake so she just cut me up. Near miss with a private car not much you can do but shout at driver. Blatant arsey/dangerous behaviour by a professional driver report it.

If you must you can pull the emergency stop level on the side of the bus, they don’t like it.

Get used to it. Happens all the time.

Buses – worth reporting Private motorist- If they are shaken and have apologised then that is enough for me unless they actually cause an accident when I would report them.

Interestingly I think we have reached “critical mass” in Edinbugh. I frequently find buses and lorries being courteous towards me when I am on my bike. the main danger remains “the school run mum” and “Mr repmobile”

i got driven over last year, women turning left into her drive across a bus lane with me in it.

She promised she’d pay for the broken wheel and damaged forks, I never got SFA off her despite writing and phoning several times, she claimed she’s posted a cheque, i asked if it had been cashed, etc etc. She had no f-in intention of paying shit.

Funnily enough though we’d just had the masonry paint removed from our house that very week, and the contractors who did it over estimated.

I alwasy wondered how much a car respray cost, i suppose i could ask her.

I got knocked off my road bike once. Police were called and told me it wasn’t a police matter as no-one was injured.

The only drivers who know how to treat cyclists are the ones that ride bikes. I genuinely believe there should be a cycling element to the driving test.

Happened to me as a driver. I saw the cyclist on my nearside after overtaking her earlier. I gave way to her and had a driver behind me beep etc.

Keep yours eyes peeled!

If she hurt you or damaged your bike then hell yeah claim.

got knocked off my road bike once. Police were called and told me it wasn’t a police matter as no-one was injured.

this is correct unless there is obvious careless or reckless driving.. tell them you are off to A&E as you have a possible broken minor bone and they then have to treat it as a injury accident.

Bus drivers/taxi’s,lorries etc etc – all professional drivers, they are paid because they take a tougher more stringent test to teach them the limitations and dangers of driving a larger, slower vehicle. Knowing these limitations and using them to cause problems – especially to such a soft target makes me blood boil. I say report them every f’ing one of them. I’ve been at an incident where a motorcyclist suffered the ultimate fate, all caused because a lorry turned right to save having to drive round a roundabout further on. I think he learned his lesson far too late!

you stretched your brake cables?

crash into them if you have that option, then go down and stay down.

TJ – I agree with you regarding the Edinburgh commute, I go between Balerno and the city centre and never have problems with buses. There’s the occasional white van man but most of my problems are car drivers trying to squeeze into a gap having just overtaken me.

I drive a dirty great lorry painted white and I get people pulling out on me all the time. The problem is people simply dont look they are too busy fiddling with the satnav texting doing paper work I once saw a bloke driving along writing on a piece of paper on the passenger seat.

Mind you some cyclists dont help themselves last week I was turning left into a narrow side road and to get an articulated lorry hard left you have to swing out right before you can turn left. A deathwish cyclist decides to nip up the inside just as I start the left turn. I saw him just before i turned him into a red wet smear on the road and he gave me grief and threatned to report me. I just calmly told him it was all on video camera (cab unit has five cameras on it 1 for 5th wheel and 1 on each corner) and he could report me to whoever pleased him the most.

Junkyard…. Quanilty mate. Fatty fight!

I’ve had this happen quite a few times but managed to avoid a collision. At the risk of appearing sexist, it has been women drivers on all occasions. It seems as though as soon as they’ve overtaken you they can forget about you. I’ve had a few speed up so they can overtake and then immediately turn left.
I tend to go into the middle of the road to prevent people from overtaking at junctions.

My most recent experience of the partial overtake and turn left came only a few minutes after a car nerly hit me three times in succession*. At this point, I’m afraid I became rather vocal in my displeasure. I pulled up and started screaming at yelling at hte (female) driver. Not only did the bus pulling out of the same junction stop for a look, but so did the car waiting to turn right into the juntion.

It was neither edifying nor, I suspect, useful to educating the driver as to the error of her ways. But, every so often the red mist descends. And this was one of those times.

Be careful out there people.

OMITN

*After almost crushing me into a series of parked cars as he ovvertook me. I hit his car with the palm of my hand, so he pulled in nearly hitting me again. As I pulled around him to overtake (and yell at him), he pulled out and nearly hit me again. Judging by his reaction, it was all entirely negligent (rather than malicious).

unfortunately its a GOI situation. daily battles with buses and people turning left are par for the course as a commuter.

today I was nearly offed by some bint in a cayenne who was applying here make up using the illumiunated vanity mirror in her visor.

unfortunately, here in Oz, people are shit at driving; its like a demilitarised zone out there some days. Also, because car=king if you get hit you can be charged with ‘dangerous riding’ and get fined/prison