Re: the cheeky bar steward!!!!!!!!

I wouldn't mind the court bit it's just that it's 3 days into the honeymoon :(

People will try and say anything if they reckon they can sue you. I'm going to get a disposable camera and put it in my toolbox, so I can take pictures if anyone runs into me. Doubt the Police attend many (any?) non-fatal accidents unless you're blocking a road.

I have posted this before but be very careful.

In my case, bus going too fast, police attended and ended up sending the driver on a training course.

12 months later, the court claim comes through. Insurance company want to just split 50/50.

My view was that the bus was going too fast, I did absolutely nothing wrong and had nothing to fear by standing up in court and telling the truth. Indeed I even turned up to court with photos, plans, diagrams, videos and everything you could ask for.

WRONG!!!

It ended up costing me (well my insurance) £15,000. In his summing up, the judge described a series of events that defied the laws of physics and said that the traffic police who attended the scene at the time must have got it wrong.

How I am not sure. I slowed down to turn right, was sat for 30 seconds waiting for a gap in the traffic when the bus eventually caught up with me and still could not stop. How clear cut can it get.

As you will find out, people are prepared to stand up and lie in court if they can get away from it. If their solicitors can put forward their lies in a better way than yours can put forward the truth, you are screwed (and yes I am still very bitter about the whole thing).

Think long and hard before you have your day in court. You may be in for a shock.

Yes

He didn't hit me. Unlike the bus driver, I was slightly more observant and happened to glance in the mirror at the right time to seem him coming down on me at speed. I was able to take the handbrake off, engage gear, floor it and get out of the way in time. I was then able to pull up further down the road and get out of my car BEFORE the bus had been able to stop.

It turned out that there had been somebody stood at the front of the bus waiting to get off and he had been thrown against the floor when the bus eventually braked (hence the claim).

You were taken to court because someone fell over on a bus that braked because you were in the way of the bus? That is bloody deranged.

That's how I understood it, if someone runs into the back of you it's their fault. Driving without due care and attention?

Mark S.

you just got hitched?

and you're on your computer??

Yes

No. The deranged bit was that I lost the argument in court.

How?

To this day, I have no idea how.

not yet :)

obviously :)

the onus is on the other driver to be aware that the bus is going to take up moer space that they are, and takig up more space means it will erquire moer space than they have left to go round said obstruction they teach you these things on the driving test don't they?

i can understand your anger, but there is nothing i can do about it here all i have tried to explain to you is that the bus company will do all it can to get out of paying someone out, and if they DID offer to go 50/50 with you then, in hindsight and not forgetting the loopy judge, that was going to be the best thet you could have hoped for

did you not appeal?

being an inspector means that you can report them when they don't ask you though :) but it is VERY dangerous reversing a bus, and don't forget, you can't reverse them with passengers on board either

unfortunatly, this is becoming mroe of the norm i'd love to say that it wasn't, but it was heading that way when i starting driving and it's just got worse and worse

"to get your passengers from one stop to the other in a safe and comfortable manner" is what it says in the rule book they may not be especially safe, and they may not be comfortable, but it's all down o the fact that passengers treat the drivers with contemt, and a good day can be ruined by just the one asshole who will give you grief about being late, when you know fullwell that you aren't this leads to them breaking the glass safety screen all over you, showring you with glass before they jump off the already open doorsbecause you are at a bus stop and because the doors are already open, everyone else on teh bus just gets off as quick as they can but i'm not bitter :/

if I picked up the twirlys (called twirlys because they'd try to get on at

8.50 and say "am I'm too early?" while waving their orange pass in your face) I'd make sure they were seated before I moved off because I was that kind of driver nowadays the times are too tight to be hanging around for 30 seconds to wait for old Doris to fid a seat so drivers just close the doors and off they go we had 4 routes where, if you had to stop to pick people up, you would be late, if you went from one end to the other without picking anyone up, you'd be on time so maybe this goes part of the way to explaining why buses speed up and down the road :) my best mates brothers best mate is a top trouble shooter for FirstBus and he spent several weeks at our garage sorting things out when it was discovered that we had twice as many accidents as another garage that operated 3 times as many buses at the end of his time there it was obvious that there were more people hitting the buses than anything else due to the nature of the area we drove through (Southall if anyone cares to go and find it on a map, then try to drive down the Broadway or complete a lap of the south road, the green, king street) if you want to know anything about buses or drivers or whatever from a drivers/inspectors/management point of view, just holler this way and I'll explain it to you from all 3 aspects

Except that if they take your front wing off, it's your own fault. As Carl said, you shouldn't be there ! As a driver, you know full well that the bus cannot get round the corner without cutting it - so stay out of the way.