Need advice on accident with a bus

Mutton_Geoff

RogerBareford said:

I personally aim to avoid all accidents even if they would be determined not to be my fault as it's far less hassle.

It's a shame more people don't drive with better situational awareness. I had a partner once who would drive straight onto traffic signalled roundabouts without looking right for oncoming traffic. "I have right of way with the green light" she said. Personally I would rather give way to someone jumping the lights than be side swiped and dead but "in the right".

mr_stripey

There is a junction in my town where two lanes of traffic cross a crossroads but the direction of the "straight on" road kinks slightly to the right. The amount of times I have seen buses or lorries in the left hand lane cross slightly into the right hand lane as they "cut" the corner is unbelievable. 

To this end, if I am in the RH lane (which I usually am on my way home), and a large vehicle is alongside I will always slow and allow it to "clear" the junction before I proceed alongside it - even though it would probably be their fault if he intruded into my lane, it is best to let them pass first.

This is echoing was @RogerBareford posted above.

TripleH

I was passenger in a car going right at a roundabout which got clipped by a bus in the left lane (actually cutting corners and travelling part in the right lane) going straight on.

It took months for the bus company to confirm their fault and pay up. It was nearly 25 years ago however.

Ectophile

To the OP:-

Remember that most people think that their driving is above average.  You've been involved in an accident, so they think your driving must be worse than theirs.  So they look down on you and sneer at you for not being as clever as them.

RogerBareford

Ectophile said:

To the OP:-

Remember that most people think that their driving is above average.  You've been involved in an accident, so they think your driving must be worse than theirs.  So they look down on you and sneer at you for not being as clever as them.

I agree with the first part of this because most people do seem to be oblivious to their failings while driving.

But i don't think giving some tips which could have avoided the accident is "sneering".

The best thing is to treat everything else on the road as if they don't really know what they are doing and never just proceed assuming everything is fine just because you have the "right of way". It was definetly "wrong" of them to stop when they saw the bus entering their lane and they should have taken action to actively avoid an accident even if stopping where they were didn't put them in the wrong when it comes to liability.

I can think of occasions where I've proceeded with caution or moved over to avoid a potential accident when a driver looks like they are not going to behave as expected. I can also think of occasions where i was the one who behaved in an unexpected way as everyone has lapses in judgement so that's why the more aware people are the bettter and that's why it's not wrong to tell people how they could have avoided an accident.