Stagecoach bus driver allegedly punched cyclist to the ground during road rage attack

**pummels the living shit out of them with a 3 kg d lock in self defence of course**

One of the few cases where you can reasonably use a tool without query about 'going equipped' etc because a cyclist should always have a d lock to hand...

Muddy Ford wrote:

What I'd really like to read one day is "angry driver stops to get out and punch a cyclist, who happens to have been an enthusiastic cage fighter and pummels the living shit out of angry driver..in self defence of course"

Well, there was this one in Singapore. Driver ended up jailed for a week, cyclist fined $5600 (about £3500 today.) The video is a guilty pleasure to watch.

TBH I'm slightly surprised the passengers allowed him to drive off. I like to think if I'd been on that bus it wouldn't have been going anywhere until the police arrived, but easy to say from behind a keyboard.

I had thought that.  You would think it would be easy enought to look at the timetables and go, "East Wichel Way Swindon, 5.30pm, Tuesday - right, that would be Bob*".

*The driver may not be called Bob.

brooksby wrote:

*The driver may not be called Bob.

Well I think Bob should be fired regardless.

Secret_squirrel wrote:

brooksby wrote:

*The driver may not be called Bob.

Well I think Bob should be fired regardless.

I can imagine a number of bus drivers called Robert suddenly asking to be referred to as Gladys for the next few days.

He could be called lots of names that I'd rather not repeat, rather like the arseh*le driving a double decker that close passed me a couple of days ago.

the arseh*le driving a double decker that close passed me

There's a lot of them about

https://upride.cc/incident/px12dnu_stagecoach40bus_closepass/

https://upride.cc/incident/px12eez_stagecoach41_closepass/

hawkinspeter wrote:

I'm puzzled as to why Stagecoach are merely "supporting the police with their investigation" as opposed to already suspended the driver and looking to fire him as soon as the evidence is available

I would not want such a liability and violent thug to be in my employment and representing my company. I'd prefer if he wasn't allowed to mingle with public for the forseeable future.

Even more so given that the local chipwrapper has at least one photo of the driver out of the bus, with the reg plate clearly visible.

Who decided to put on his coat and grab his back pack before alighting the bus.🤔

Theres a big assumption we might be making that this was THE bus driver not merely a "bus driver" employee of Stagecoach on the bus.

Awavey wrote:

Who decided to put on his coat and grab his back pack before alighting the bus.🤔 Theres a big assumption we might be making that this was THE bus driver not merely a "bus driver" employee of Stagecoach on the bus.

Seems a reasonable assumption to me as a passenger is far less likely to be wound up by the traffic conditions and there's mention of trying to knock the rider off his bike.

maybe the guy with the coat and the bag was one of the intervening bystanders then

I'd say it's a fair assumption based on the witness and police accounts quoted above:

"The driver was getting impatient and tried to knock the cyclist off his bike and then got off the bus and there was an argument."

"The driver just got back on the bus and drove off"

"When he tried to alert the driver by knocking on the window, the bus stopped and the driver got out."

None of those make sense if 'the driver' was not actually the driver of the bus. 

Though to be fair, it isn't designed for that, much as it's not designed for headbutting car windscreens.

I had a look and the last up date on google maps is 2016 so there may have been some changes. Looks like there is or was a lot of development down the road which if it was around that time it would be quite built up around there now. But it does look like there has been some thought process around traffic calming around there so it beggars belief what was going through the bus drivers head at the time and it evidently appears to be not a lot other than anger and rage ?

Image from 2021 here, the road is a shared bus/cycle lane in one direction and one-way for vehicles in the other. No cycle lane, looks to be a shared space.

https://goo.gl/maps/o61834ZagodmQ64E9

Ah ha, spotted it! There's a tiny 'shared use' pavement sign. So the bus driver was obviously annoyed that the cyclists were riding on the shared road instead of the shared footway. A bus driver who needs his licence revoked.

https://goo.gl/maps/qxEUkVfxfQkgWz8z5

From the picture in the Gazette & Herald, they hadn't reached that point yet - bus stopped, bikes on ground about 100m west of that, in the built-up area, with the bus pointing out of town.

Agreed.  I think the cycle lane issue may be a figment of the witness' imagination.

I think what's more likely is that the father was deliberately riding in primary position in order to prevent the bus from trying to squeeze past his son.

Flâneur wrote:

From the picture in the Gazette & Herald, they hadn't reached that point yet - bus stopped, bikes on ground about 100m west of that, in the built-up area, with the bus pointing out of town.

The other side of that post has the same shared use sign, so it would appear that the pavement all the way along that stretch, up to the bus stop where the incident occurred and beyond, is shared use too (couldn't be described as a cycle lane though):

Maybe. Given the lack of shared use roundels further along, and the plentiful bus (and cycle) gate signage, my money's on that side of the post being a workman's bodge job.

The tactiles on the cycle path side of the post would indicate that too.