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news
'Close pass' cyclist gets revenge on bus by hitting engine kill switch
A London cyclist who was overtaken by a ‘bully’ bus driver has been caught on camera switching off the vehicle’s engine in revenge.
The video shows a rider being beeped by a 159 bus in Brixton, south London, before being overtaken without much space.
The cyclist, who was wearing a helmet cam, followed the bus, and opens a flap marked ‘emergency’.
He presses a button and cuts off the bus’s engine.
The video’s owner on YouTube says: “Bus driver makes aggressive close pass, cyclist takes revenge.
"Or as they say in my town: Bully gets owned!”
One commenter said: "Embarassment to cyclists and not recommended", while another said “Think this revenge has more of a negative impact on the [bus] riders than the driver.
"The driver is getting paid either way, the riders might be late. ”
But another said: “This needs to be a thing for dangerous bus driving.
"A 30 second stop-go penalty imposed immediately.”
A Transport for London spokesman told the Evening Standard that, although it is not illegal, using the emergency stop button could endanger passengers as it cuts off all power including to disabled-access ramps.
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The first generation CHPT3 items made in concert with Castelli were fantastic quality, and when purchased on sale were a reasonable investment. I...
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Theres not one scrap of self-help among drivers is there, it's always someone else's issue.
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- Rendel Harris 8 hours 14 min ago
Thank goodness for that. I don't suppose anyone would want you to. You certainly behave like one though.
- Eton Rifle 8 hours 22 min ago
You do see some utterly ridiculous examples of car use....
- Eton Rifle 8 hours 44 min ago
Exactly. Every road death is a tragedy but this is at the "twat deserved it" end of the spectrum, looking at the state of that car.
- Rendel Harris 8 hours 51 min ago
I'm not the editor of this article, nor indeed of anything on this website. One would have thought that didn't require explaining.
- Eton Rifle 8 hours 52 min ago
I think the answer is in your question. I genuinely didn't know he was married to her. It does kinda explain it. Disappointing, nevertheless.
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34 comments
I had to laugh
Didn't look particularly close to me; I'd say that at least a dozen vehicles pass me closer than that every single ride I take to and from work. If it's worth anything, it's a flap of teh hand (largely to tell the drivers behind not to get so close when *they* pass).
You seem to be telling us that your approach isn't working for you?
WW is spot-on but I have no problem with the engine stop being used on vehicles that are being driven intentionally dangerously. If anything he's done a public service.
Fwiw couldn't give a f@§k either way.
I cycle through that junction every day. TFL has it marked as one of the most dangerous. Traffic goes left to Tulse Hill and straight on to streatham. The lights are not phased for each direction and so there is a free for all and cyclists going to streatham are often cut up and endangered by drivers in right lane needing to cut across lane to the left because buses impede them. I have seen 2 cyclist knocked if there bikes precisely because of this. That's what make what happened here so surprising because that was hardly a close pass. Not idea given bus driver could have continued in lane before coming over. It's also uphill. I think rider would have been better off reporting driver to Garage/TFL with footage.
I cycle through that junction every day. TFL has it marked as one of the most dangerous. Traffic goes left to Tulse Hill and straight on to streatham. The lights are not phased for each direction and so there is a free for all and cyclists going to streatham are often cut up and endangered by drivers in right lane needing to cut across lane to the left because buses impede them. I have seen 2 cyclist knocked if there bikes precisely because of this. That's what make what happened here so surprising because that was hardly a close pass. Not idea given bus driver could have continued in lane before coming over. It's also uphill. I think rider would have been better off reporting driver to Garage/TFL with footage.
What a pr*ck that cyclist is. He should have pulled over to the left of the lane rather than ride in the middle and to commit the offence well that's going to help other cyclists isn't it. What a pen*s.
is there any position the cyclist can take where another vehicle (the bus in this case) can fit in the lane with him? No.
at the start of the clip he is in lane 3 of 4 as lanes 1 and 2 do not go where he is going, to cycle on the left here would be dangerously close to any vehivcles using the lane on his left. In fact he would then be blocking two lanes, in order for the bus driver to feel he was talking up less space.
By the time the other lanes had seperated, the driver had already started being agressive and he could reasonably expect the bus would try to squeeze through in the same lane with him if he was on the left.
Throughout the whole video the entire lane to the right of the cyclist was available for the bus, but the driver chose not to use it.
Who is creating the problem in this situation, because I can't see how the cyclist could do anything different withut endangering himself. Was the e/stop use overreaction? maybe, there had after all be sufficient time for cooling down in the pursuit.
But again, causes only inconvenience while drivers actions, as usual, cause danger.
Yes. This!
Blah. Wh*t a cunt y*u are.
I guessing that because the emergency engine stop button was pressed will mean a report will have to be made, which may lead to an investigation, and a viewing of the video evidence from all of the cameras on this modern bus. Probably more of an investigation than would have been made if a complaint had been sent.
Using a 12.5 tonne behemouth to intentionally threaten a vulnerable human being is wrong, and with a few more heinous attacks like on the London bridges and in Finsbury Park, may well come to be viewed as what it is and was intended to be, an act of terror.
I do really hope for better standards of driving from our "highly trained" and "professional" drivers.
He is a cunt, he has committed at least one offence by interfering with another vehicle. He also then cuts up the van at the end when he pulls out to pass the bus. But more than both of those actual offences he has pissed off more road users and the next sensible cyclist they come across have to deal with that anger.
Hope the Police get off their arse and charge him.
Wasn't even close to being a 'close pass', bus driver gave him almost the entire lane before moving across, and even then there was plenty of space.
Really don't agree with this because it's unfair on the bus passengers. If the driver is driving badly, complain to TfL (though I'm aware that probably won't get you anywhere, its not right to make the passenger suffer for the behaviour of the driver).
I note though that Applecart is still pushing his crackpot theory that cyclists should always be in the gutter or the door-zone (nice weasel wording to imply that avoiding the door zone is an 'excuse' for taking primary, as if it's inherently a wrong thing to do that needs excusing).
On the day it will be the passengers who suffer, however the driver will be embarrassed and might, (might?) think again about close passes if he knows this can be done again.
However, no one commented on the motorbikers weaving in and out of traffic, he was just as close and going faster.
The passengers would have had a much longer wait (on the bus AND in court) if the cyclist had ended up under the wheels of that bus.
Yes, the motorcyclists were pretty gung ho, but they do tend to know how long and wide they are. (No excuse.)
If the cyclist bottles it and loses his balance, or has to swerve to avoid a pothole there are 11 meters (and12.5 tonnes) of bus between the front and back wheels. Also...'professional drivers' supposedly regulated above and beyond the usual standard of competence so that they may carry the public. I recall that the loss of my PSV license was considered a real and job-losing threat, and I was only a conductor.
What is a 'conductor.' Did you get hit by lightening?
Sorry Leviathan, your photo tells me that you're not so young that you don't remember bus conductors! (Or can it really have been so long ago?)
PS. Lightning!
Ha. I do know what a conductor is, but having lived in Newcastle and Manchester I don't actually remember ever being served by one (I did walk to school in the late 80's, but even then you paid the driver.)
lightening
ˈlʌɪt(ə)nɪŋ/
noun
a drop in the level of the uterus during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis.
I've been hit by a few things -especially as a bus conductor- but fortunately never that!
Or he, and every other driver that sees this, might make sure to force the next rider completely off the road so that they can't ride up behind and do it again.
I too thought that the motocyclsit was worse than the bus.
I think tampering with the bus is overkill really. The driver was driving aggressively and shouldn't go so close, however the cyclist shouldn't be taking up the whole lane either as there are no parked cars on a red route, so no dooring danger (which is the usual excuse I hear). Personally I would keep to the left of my lane once I'm out of the lights and across the junction so I don't impede the flow of traffic.
The rider is perfectly placed and no one should harass or bully them out of the way. Faster vehicles have to wait for slower ones, end of.
How can you impede the flow of traffic when you are the traffic as well?
Also, please direct me to the part of the Highway Code that states that cyclists shouldn't be taking up the whole lane, or are you just making up your own rules?
Empty lane, no traffic ahead, absolutely no reason for bus to encroach into cyclists lane, dangerously close deliberate pass, coupled with signalling of premeditation and intent by blowing the horn...assault by any legal definition. (Except it's a cyclist...so.) If anybody else had disarmed an aggressive individual throwing their weight around in a public place armed with a dangerous piece of machinery they'd be hailed as a have-a-go hero!
Fair play to the cyclist.
More to the point, why is he carrying a track pump on his bars? Hasn't he heard of CO2?
Can't wait until tomorrow's episode, when a cyclist sticks a banana up a taxi's exhaust.
Anyone seen that video where a 'cyclist' nicks a motorcyclist's keys and then gets battered senseless?
The cyclist (Evo Lucas) is usually quite a good cyclist, but this is a bit of a let down.
It's the cyclist equivalent of a punishment pass. It doesn't help our cause and just cements joe publics view of cyclists.
If the bus had caused a collision and was trying to drive off, I could understand it, but this was overkill.
Sorry Will not me being a bad boy.
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