Bus/car accident, who's fault?

Thought that might be the case, a work colleague told me this but it was probably in the ‘good old days’

Thinking about this a bit more, it is possible that we have got a car repair workshop somewhere for insurance claims, although I’ve never heard of it and it seems unlikely due to a possible conflict of interests.
It’s more likely that we have got a list of approved independent garages that we use, just as we have got a list of approved suppliers for parts and services for the buses.

Have a look at the next junction if you think this one is bad! The bus driver would have know about the parked cars, there always is outside of the clearway times. They may be ‘professional’ drivers doesn’t mean they have to be good at it 😉

Still not sure why the car has to avoid the bus when the car was holding his position on the road and the bus was moving across the lane. If you didn’t know the junction, you would assume the TWO straight ahead lanes continued on through the junction as there is no signage to the contrary. The car and bus were continuing alongside each other as they had done for the previous 100m or so (at least, its a multi lane road at that point), the car was not trying to overtake or dive past, he was just continuing straight ahead at a very similar speed as he had no warning two lanes were about to become a single lane! So the car driver was given nowhere to go when the bus moved across (driver mustn’t have checked his mirrors, or if he did simply thought he could bully the car into avoiding action) and the sides of the two vehicles hit. The car was braking but the side of the bus then rubbed up the side of the (now stationary) car. The bus driver then continued up the road unaware he had struck the car, such was his professional driving standards!

Thanks for the replies, interesting stuff!

Project-you mean heading out of chester over the grovesner bridge?
This happens all the time-people fire around the inside of the island before it and try and out drag the queing traffic before the single lane bridge.I rely on the fact that i don’t give a flying fig about my car whilst smiling directly at them.

50/50 when they are side by side on a single land.

From the point where the solid white line crosses the road it is a single lane.
If the car driver can’t complete his overtaking manoeuvre by then, he should give way to any vehicle on his left.
The bus driver is entitled to use the full width of the lane.

That’s how I see it too.

Me being a ultra cautious in thouse situations, I have found it far less stressfull to let the other party through in 50/50 situations.

Bus drivers are arseholes, been run off the road held up forced to take avoiding action so many times it’s hard to remember.
But if the driver claims he held his line and didn’t according to the video on board he’s in trouble. If the bus hit the car towards the rear he’s in trouble as it will be claimed he hit the car. The only people to get rich out of this one will be the insurance companies.

There’s quite a few situations (2 lanes into 1 no markings) like this on my commute including a couple right around the corner form my house, they wind me up no end. What really annoys is when I’m driving and trying to merge I’ll brake to let the guy beside me take the lane and me merge in behind him, whoever is behind him will invariably speed up to prevent me merging – Grrrr.
Here’s one
And another
And another right after that not actually marked for 2 lanes but very wide so conducive to 2 abreast driving, narrows after junction tho.

Dangerous for cyclists too when drivers don’t want to merge so drive 2 abreast, LH car 2″ from the kerb, RH car 2ft over central road marking.

Rorschach – Member
Project-you mean heading out of chester over the grovesner bridge?
This happens all the time-people fire around the inside of the island before it and try and out drag the queing traffic before the single lane bridge.I rely on the fact that i don’t give a flying fig about my car whilst smiling directly at them.

Posted 5 hours ago # Report-Post

Hoole bridge outbound,

Sealand road near staples,

Grosvenor bridge coming into chester,

The bus lane at Curzon park roundabout and also the bus lane on Hough green, 2 places,

A41 near the old zoo turn off, heading out iof chester,

and finally the A41 eading both ways at little sutton, and great sutton.

Dangerous for cyclists too when drivers don’t want to merge so drive 2 abreast, LH car 2″ from the kerb, RH car 2ft over central road marking

Absolutely. Nothing worse as a cyclist and they’re all over the place in London.

Drivers fault as he’s in the second lane “overtaking” however ultimately it’s the road designers fault for not labelling it correctly and the bus driver gets a kick for being an idiot and not avoiding the crash too (it’s easy enough for him to brake as he’d see the car next to him).

Both could avoid this crash by one or both stopping, but neither did.

You’ve got to remember this bus driver has probably driven this route many times before, has a professional drivers license, and should be one of the most highly skilled groups of drivers in the UK (driving a large vehicle almost exclusively in heavy traffic)

Irrespective of fault, s/he should be aware of the junction, and been able to avoid the accident through a combination of mirrors and forward planning

This is a good point. I often see drivers of large vehicles straddling lanes because they know that there is an upcoming section where there is not enough room for other vehicles alongside. If the bus drive knows the route (which you would assume was likely) maybe he should have been more prepared for this sort of eventuality.

There’s plenty of roads where the left lane merges into the right lane. They’re usually signed, but I still find it a bit odd – who has right of way? Normally the right lane is passing and needs to merge back in, not the other way.