Bristol cyclist left in road after bus hit-and-run on notorious Gloucester Road

The story is about a bus, so it's inevitable that the bus company gets a lot of stick. However, Bristolians have a blind spot that sometimes prevents them noticing that the city's narrow and tangled roads are home to nearly 200,000 motor cars, very few of which are used to give colleagues a lift to work. No bus company on earth could run buses to a timetable or employ happy, well-motivated drivers in a city like that. Add the residents of Bristol's fringe local authorities who also drive in every day and chaos is assured. The bus drivers I see are decent people with a very tough job. This one wasn't, but we should not forget the context.

The central problem is cars, far more cars than the city wll ever be able to cope with.

A few weeks ago I was cycling northwards on the Gloucester Road in the bit running up to the stop outside the old Bristol North Baths. A double decker bus came up behind me and gradually started overtaking me, pulling leftwards into the stop. By the time the bus was stationary, I was two-thirds down its length and trapped between it and the raised pavement at the stop. I could see his eyes looking at me in the side mirror the entire time he was doing this deliberate act.

After I extricated myself and cycled around the back and on to to the drivers side, he shouted out the window, "if I ever see you on the Gloucester Road again, I'll f*****g shoot you, you c**t!" (Why "shoot", I'll never know).

Maybe it was it was the same bloke (if it was one) - white, late forties, balding (or shaven head), slab faced (ok that does describe quite a lot of people - but think Ross Kemp like) but it all happened so fast. In hindsight, I should have photo'd the bus from the back, but I was fairly shaken.

Surely this is a police matter? It sounds like a deliberate hit and run? Letter of complaint is completely inappropriate.

Hmm, a real contrast from my local bus company, Metrobus. I emailed them about an incident where one of their buses' front corner swung rather too close to a cyclist while turning a corner (enough to make the cyclist stop and recompose themselves) and the response I received was really good and went much further than I'd suggested. Actually, the standard of their driving is *usually* exemplary in my experience, unlike the recent start-up competing with them with ancient smoky buses,and drivers obviously trying to keep up with an unrealistic timetable... I won't use their buses by policy.

I've always had bad experiences of First on trains so this doesn't surprise me that much

I would LOVE the HSE to take control of the roads. In an age where Tippex is picked up as a chemical in the office and a hazard to be listed with more noxious agents can you imagine what intervention the road network would need?!

It would be shut down immediately.

I can be killed by someone in two tonnes of speeding metal operating lethal machinery whilst distracted by an Apple smartwatch with or without a license to even operate that machine whilst on my way to work but... I cannot have Tippex in my office unless it's listed on a hazards form as quote 'it could flick whilst being used and land in my eye'.

Unreal isn't it?

Cycle to Work Scheme is irrelevant in this matter.

Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 clearly mentions duty of care to members of the public who may be affected.

That said: I'm not sure RTA's on the public road are automatically covered, you would need an opinion from the HSE (Health & Safety Executive).

First Bus. Sponsors of the Sulis Scorpions Youth Cycling Alliance in nearby Bath.

Whatever happened to their Chief Operating Officer Jeroen Weimar? Who just happened to be a coach there at the time? (Answer is he was sacked).

The First bus logo features prominently on the kids jerseys.

Description of the incident sounds like a hit and run. Police should be involved and First will surely know who was driving their bus at the time.

Why their 'customer service' department are involved is a total mystery. Surely the folks on the bus are the customers, not those that the drivers are bumping off their bikes?

Counting myself lucky after several run ins with First in Leeds. It would seem they are trained to race cyclists to bus stops or pinch points and to win at all costs. I contacted them a while ago after one driver mounted the pavement. Haven't seen an improvement.

Sounds to me like a clear failure to stop as mentioned above. Probably failed to report the accident too, which is then a further offence.
I'd hope his license to drive buses was stopped for at least a period of time.

First in particular have an absolutely terrible reputation here in Bristol, from the cyclists, the pedestrians, the bus-users, and the other motorists.

The problem is that they are constantly trying to not fall behind on their timetable (I know - apparently they do have a timetable: who'd've thought it?).

Anyway, my point is that their poorly paid drivers are under a lot of pressure to get in front get in front get in front all the time. Not that that is really an excuse.

With this case, I'm sure First will eventually say that the Invisible Man was driving the No 76 that morning, but they can't now find him because he was subcontracted from a temping agency, that they can't trace the onboard cctv footage, and the cctv camera was eaten by a leopard anyway just the day before... Very sorry, of course, but nothing more we can do...

(I don't understand why this isn't a police matter anyway, rather than a letter-of-complaint-and-waiting-for-an-apology.)

A First bus carved me up in Bristol last year. It was 6:30 am and there was no traffic worth speaking of. I caught up with the bus at the lights, and in my nicest, most even tone said to the bus driver, 'Excuse me, but would you please give me a little more room next time'. His response was blunt 'F*** off, I gave you loads of room'. As he then pulled straight into the bus station and I had the bus's number, writing to First was simple. I pointed out that they didn't tolerate that sort of abuse to their drivers and I didn't see why I should, let alone the shoddy driving. I got a reply, but as you can perhaps guess, I was underwhelmed.

if she has the bike via the cycle to work scheme it's effectively a work place accident. The bus is at work so it's a work place accident.
The HSE should investigate. The bus company should have a safe system of work to prevent harm to persons who aren't employees under H&S@wk act. Looks like a clear breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act section 3.1. 'It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.

If the bus company has a SSoW, it failed and should be reviewed.

Gloc Rd is on my daily commute.
Bus drivers do have to put up with a lot of 'risk taking' (idiot) cyclists so probably develop an unhealthy attitude generally to bikers but some seem to be deliberately aggressive toward cyclists.
Some of us, though, are careful and considerate cyclists, along with a fair few newbies who have to cope with aggressive and downright dangerous drivers on a busy and congested route into the city centre.
I frequently have been squashed into the curbs by buses, stuck between buses going both directions and have buses pull out as I am passing on the outside. You have to really careful on that route, for sure.
Some of the drivers are considerate though, positive eye contact and friendly hand gestures if I take the time to see if I can pass inside or turn off, so they are not all nasty.
My sympathies for the lady in question. I have 2 screws in my elbow and a repaired metatarsal bone thanks to cycling round our friendly 'cycling city'.
Safe riding folks.

need to let Health and Safety off the leash and get them to deal with these crashes as if they were workplace incidents, which in a sense they are... then we may start seeing proper control measures in force and proper attention paid to the safety of passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and any other road user that the bus interacts with... it really p155es me off that the companies behave as if Health and Safety legislation stops outside the garage...

Shocking incedent and shocking response from the bus company.

It's a deliberate attack. The bus company are in damage limitation mode.

There needs to be a prosecution.

The quote should be "used his vehicle as a weapon". Current incident sounds like criminal matter to me, not for "customer relations department".

"We have also trialled new technology on our buses" << any chance of trialling new technology that excludes psychopathic bus drivers from every getting the job

"We have also trialled new technology on our buses" << any chance of trialling new technology that excludes psychopathic bus drivers from every getting the job

"Conflict between bus drivers and cyclists in Bristol is nothing new. In 2012 bus driver Gavin Hill was jailed for 17 months for "using his bike as a weapon" when he deliberately hit cyclist Phillip Mead." don't you mean "used his bus as a weapon" ?