Riding into town just now with my lad on his top-tube seat, I got side-swiped by a school bus and sent into the kerb. He was overtaking approaching a roundabout with a traffic island and pulled in too soon.
I punched the bus and shouted, the girls on the back-seat saw me. I caught him at the next lights and shouted at the driver “Did you not see me?”, he shouted something back and drove off. I didn’t want to get too aggressive with my lad there.

I’m ok, but shaken up. My manly skills stopped me being knocked off. 😕
Turns out, one of my neighbours was just behind, so witnessed it.
I had lights on and was wearing hi-vis jacket, riding the Voodoo so wide bars meant I had width to aid the visibility.

I got the name of the bus company.

What do I do to get an apology and ensure the bus driver is reprimanded?

What do I do to get an apology and ensure the bus driver is reprimanded?

call the police and get your neighbour to be a witness don’t bother going to the bus company.

‘driving without due care and attention’ charges will tend to get an apology from anyone.

if you’re feeling particularly aggreived (I would be) then local papers love this sort of story ‘small child nearly mown down by school bus – driver flees scene’

The bus company will probably ignore you, if it was serious bad driving then contact police (seeing as you have a witness).

Contact the manager at the bus company, and mention that you intend to contact the school and the local authority, even if you have no such intention.

Reporting it with the bus reg number, route and location… there supposed to take it seriously. Make sure you make them aware of the whole incident you child being a risk, and the ‘reply’ (no apology just an abusive shout) from the driver.
I know that locally the public buses have camera’s on there drivers, though this may not be the case if it’s a contract ‘coach’.

Thanks.

It is a contract coach, according to the website, its a general run bringing kids from around the area to the various schools around here.

I’m impressed that there’s been no mention of owning-with-bombers or weeing-in-shoes 🙂

Is it worth contacting CTC’s legal advice dept, as I’m a member so have access?

If you came to me and told me that, and your neighbour too, then I would charge the bus driver.

Contact police if you want ‘official’ action but, unless you plan to sue the bus company for somethign I’m not sure the CTC will be able to do much more than make noises?

Write to your Traffic Commissioer’s office with as much info as poss inc a statement from the witness – TC’s office license PSV drivers – and are concerned about the behaviour of bus drivers. They have a responsibility to investigate. They’ll acknowledge your letter and seek observations from the driver’s employer in the first instance and let you know the outcome. The correspondence will go on the driver’s file (it might be a thick one full of similar complaints) and will be there to take into consideration when the licence comes up for renewal. In extreme cases the driver can be hauled in front of the Traffic Commissioner and may loose his licence (and livelihood). Bad bus driving is serious.

I had a school bus do exactly the same to me; overtaking on the approach to a mini-roundabout, even though I’d moved further into the road to stop people doing just what he did. He got alongside me and realised he was running out of space before reaching the traffic island in the middle of the road so just moved over & squeezed me out. Luckily there was no kerb, so I moved onto the grass, shouted some profanities and carried on my way.

I rang the bus company when I got home and upon explaining what happened, from the sound of it the bloke I spoke to was expecting me to say the route & reg no of the bus that i did. He was very apologetic and said he would make sure the bloke was spoken to.
I left it at that.

go to the police. bus drivers are a bloody menace. worse than any one else on the road. if it happens again there should be an emergency shut off on the back of the bus. hit that instead of shouting at driver.

Just called local police station, there’s an officer coming down to see me…

I wouldn’t even bother with the bus co, they’ll just reply with flim-flam like “appropriate action has been taken but we can’t tell you what that is due to data protection.”

Fantastic, good luck ir_bandito.

bus drivers are a bloody menace. worse than any one else on the road.

Apart from Audi and BMW drivers, naturally. 😉

bus drivers are a bloody menace. worse than any one else on the road.

Nah, taxi drivers surely?

Na bus drivers. Taxi drivers give you no room but theyre in a small vehicle bus driver give you no room and dont give a s*** about you either

The bus driver left the scene of an accident. Report it to the police now.

Report it to the police now.

he already has 🙂

This used to happen to me on a daily basis in Manchester, multiple times a day. The police would have arrested me for harrassement if I called them every time a bus nearly flattened me.

I did learn to grow eyes in the back of my head quite quickly though. 😆

You (and your child) were lucky to get away with no injuries and a mild case of annoyance due to the bus drivers bad (and very dangerous) driving.

If the driver in question does this sort of bad driving regularly then the next time someone might not be able to complain on an internet forum (or to the Police).

As the bus was contracted to run a service for the children to get to school, it will probably be a tendered service from the local council, so first point of contact would be the local council transport authority, dont forget to get the name of the person you speak to, also next the bus company, then the school.

Follow up with either a written or emailed report to all the above.

Accidents do happen, but the driver should have stopped and made sure you where ok.Driving kids to school is a very dificult job, and a very important one, luckily no one was seriously hurt.

Police officer is a cyclist and is going to take him to court for points or driver safety course.

I’m impressed that there’s been no mention of owning-with-bombers or weeing-in-shoes

Own him with bombers, then take off his shoes and wee in them.

Seriously though glad you and your biy are in one piece.

Police officer is a cyclist and is going to take him to court for points or driver safety course.

Sounds lucky you had a cyclist copper, I would have thought the polici woldnt bother as no one was injured etc…

Contact the police and the bus depot manager. That’s dangerous driving. Glad you and the lad are ok though. Would’ve had major panics if that was me.

What Cynic-al said. Do not contact the bus co at all. They will always take the side of the driver. Contact the police.

How’s the little ‘un? OK I hope?

court for points or driver safety course

Seems pretty light for running you and your son off the road.

Very dissapointing, in my experience bus drivesr are usually the best drives. I would do what people here say, straight to the police and straight to the news.

I found something last night which seemed to work quite well. I had a bus start to overtake me and i knew he would cut in soon so as soon as i heard the engine rev up and his cab start to over take me i stuck my right arm out very far in a pointing, not signalling manner. He over took REALLY wide. I was surprised it worked, but am going to try it in future. Sometimes though, it can be too late. Ive narrowly avoided your situation before and a stern email to the company apparently meant they gave the guy a good talking to.

What Cynic-al said. Do not contact the bus co at all. They will always take the side of the driver.

Not always – but it helps that MD is also a cyclist in this case 😉

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Road-rage-bus-driver-hit-cyclist-Bristol/story-14332449-detail/story.html

I’m not going to the bus company, I’ll let the police do that.

We’re ok, I’m stil shaken up.

If the driver already has points, he won’t be allowed to do the safety course, he’ll get more points which may force him off the road.
If he hasn’t, he won’t be able to risk being so stupid in the future.

Thanks for all your concern.

I’ll update when I hear of anything.

Pimpmaster Jazz – Member

“bus drivers are a bloody menace. worse than any one else on the road.”

Apart from Audi and BMW drivers, naturally.

what if the bus driver also owns an Audi ?

Ok, just spoke to the police again.
Driver has a clean record, and is going to have a “formal chat” on friday.

Nice to see the Police are taking this seriously and doing what they can.

I have contacted the bus company before ( for a less serious incident) and they certainly seemed to take it seriously including getting back to me later.

for that one tho the police for sure

Glad both of you are ok 🙂

Write to the Bus Company asking for an apology. They’ll investigate who the driver is and probably reprimand and deal with him internally. I had to investigate loads of similar complaints and accidents when I worked for Stage Coach Devon. Often it will involve the driver being sent back to their driving school for reassessment. It could even leave to disciplinary action for the driver depending on previous history.

At the least you’ll get an apology. Give them as much info as possible, bus number, reg, description of driver, location and time.

Tom Kp

Also, just remember that buses and lorries have massive blind spots. And cyclists are dry difficult to see at times. This is no way excusing the driver, and his attitude afterwards was terrible.

Remember the majority of bus drivers are sensible decent folk, it’s just a minority that cause the problems.

Tom kP

Blind spot or no, I was wearing a hi-viz jacket and had my Trout’d Hope lights on. The only blind spot was not actually looking in his wing mirror.

I would contact the bus company directly and ask to speak to someone in charge – be nice (gets you further) and suggest you would pass on your advice that the driver should be more careful next time – and spell out the consequences if you had not been quick to make emergency manoeuvres etc?

If they get shirty then you are happy to push it further as you have a witness and can easily get the police involved?

Glad your ok Paul. Hope that the driver of the bus realises what he has done and how different the situation could have been, even if that is after an intervention from the police.