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news
London Bus roundel (licensed CC BY-SA 3.0 by Tom Page on Flickr)Cyclist says his shoulder was broken when bus driver veered into him on purpose
A cyclist says his shoulder was broken when a London bus driver deliberately knocked him off his bike in a hit-and-run crash in east London.
Transport for London (TfL) says it is investigating the incident, which according to the Ilford Recorder happened in South Woodford last Wednesday 16 September.
Ikbal Hussain told the newspaper that he had been riding towards the Charlie Brown’s roundabout with his friend Moz Ali when a bus driver beeped their horn at the pair, who are both experienced riders and members of a cycling club.
Mr Hussain said that “words were exchanged” at the traffic lights, with the bus driver telling them to get on the footway.
The cyclist said that he and his friend continued to ride on the road, as they are allowed to do by law, and that shortly afterwards “the bus sped past and seemed to deliberately veer towards me and I then clipped the bus and went flying.”
The driver failed to stop at the scene and, with the cyclists saying that a woman who got off the bus at the next stop told them that other passengers had urged the driver to stop after he hit Mr Hossain but he refused to do so.
Mr Ali said: “The lady who got off the bus told me that the driver had missed her bus stop because he was trying to chase us.”
A friend took Mr Hossain to King George Hospital, Goodmayes, that day but he left after waiting for three hours to be seen.
The following day, he went to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, where he learnt his shoulder had been fractured as a result of the crash.
Speaking of the incident, he said: “I felt traumatised and it felt like someone was deliberately trying to kill me.”
Claire Mann, director of bus operations at TfL, said: “We are concerned to hear of this incident and are working with the bus operator, Stagecoach, to urgently investigate what happened.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
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The small frame, the aggressive posture, lots of standover height.
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As i've said before, the police should be sued for a lot of money when someone they have knowingly ignored has gone on to commit a serious crime....
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You're defending bombing hospitals and refugee camps and starving children.
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At risk of being cynical, and stereotyping the police, it's so they don't have to leave the comfort of their panda cars and pursue on foot when...
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19 comments
I find it hard to understand why he hasn't reported it to the police and has only made a complaint to the bus company. This presently only makes it a civil matter. Where if the offense did indeed take place, the driver should lose his licence and job.
Hmmm, we had an article a few years ago where a cyclist was rammed head on, ended up in hopsital and the Police required him to try to get CCTV footage himself.
At a guess, there is a chance he contacted the Bus company (well TFL) for these details as he had nothing on camera himself to prove who it was. No reg, no footage, nothing but the bus number and time and location of the accident. Then went to the papers to ensure there was publicity so less likely to be swept under the carpet.
He had witnesses though, the member of the public who was on the bus, his own friend. With these alone a charge of leaving the scene of an accident would have been levelled at him. He could have stayed at the scene of the accident and had an ambulance called and therefore recorded the incident. In this case he would have got better medical treatment than trooping up to A&E and waiting. With the incident recorded, Police would have been involved. Doing that would have helped securing the main piece of evidence, the bus drivers CCTV. As that would have happened (hopefully) the same day, so it could never have "disappeared", if even it has. Buses always have CCTV pointing forward so as to record cars in the bus lane. Such images would have shown the cyclists, and the buses direction viz a viz them.
As mentioned, the Met Police had the incident reported for the head-on the same day it had happened and the Ambulance was called. Still needed him to ask around for the CCTV and this incident was no where near as serious in consequences as that one.
From the pictures supplied, he was walking wounded and adreneline was probably stopping him feeling some of the pain. I doubt an ambulance was initially called as his bike was still rideable. It appears they might have gone back to the car and then driven to hospital.
Now I would argue that the difference between an Ambulance visit and walking into A and E is to jump the triage queue. Once you are triaged, the long wait is the treatment. Triage would have been cuts and bruises and pain to the arm but nothing else obvious. So towards the back of the queue unfortunately no matter whether arrived by ambulance or car.
I think the actual sequnce of event will actually will out anyway.
Bus number, location and time are plenty to establish who was driving, the bus would have CCTV as well, there is enough there to prove there was an incident.
Which is what TFL is investigating. Hopefully they can then report it to the Police once details are released.
on a wider level, all these witnesses (passangers) on the bus to an alleged hit and run, surely they each called the police to report the incident. !!
Or did they simply get off at thier stop further up the road and go about thier day.
"Transport for London (TfL) says it is investigating the incident", Surely this should be invetigaed by the Met Police, this is an allegation of a serious crime, why report it to the employers ?
Its London, people dont choose to get involved in things, unless they are forced to,so yep they simply got off and ignored it happened.
Or they were all immersed in the game on their phone and saw nothing.
This is not just with intent to cause serious harm (potentially even attempted murder), the crime is also on a par with hate crimes, on top of using the bus as a deadly weapon.
The problem we have the punishments (if any, as cops fail to take action) are much too weak and hardly ever fit the seriousness of the crime to be of any deterant.
Thus, giving dangerous or maniac drivers and careless drivers green light to continue their rampage of death & destruction and, occasionally, attacking vulnerable groups - this as an example.
No doubt they'll have "an issue" with the CCTV on the bus going by past experience. Clearly premeditated but not going to hold my breath.
I hope the CCTV is working. Like you I fear it isn't.
I had a similar issue with a bus in Streatham some years ago, where I was pushed into the railings by the side of the road by an angry driver. One of the more scary bits of my cycling life.
Presumably all on the bus's CCTV.
At the minimum, in my view 'using a vehicle as a weapon' should be a specific offence, above the usual dangerous driving etc. Utterly indefensible, particularly by a 'professional' driver.
The fact that it was a deliberate calculated act should indeed set this apart. The element of intent should lead to prison.
I agree.
"Dangerous driving" should be used when there is no intent to injure (or even intimidate) anyone, but the driving is just reckless as to that likelihood.
The moment someone deliberately uses their vehicle to injure (or intimidate) anyone, then that should be treated no different to waving a gun in their face or shooting them.
Well, it does happen...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-17066798
Better than some convictions, but there still doesn't seem to be any recognition of the potential lethality of the weapon used.
I also note that the sentence was 17 months - when the maximum available for causing GBH with intent is life imprisonment. There's also no mention of what, if any, driving ban was imposed.
It was also a long time ago. I rather suspect that every day sees someone somewhere in the land using their vehicle as a weapon.
On average, there's over 100 knife crimes per day and 18 gun crimes per day (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50080236) - being all too common doesn't mean that "car crime" shouldn't be treated in the same way.