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Hi guys,
Today i was driving south on a major road, and the first lane was blocked with a stalled car. The car in front of me squeezed passed and with my signal on i squeezed in halfway in the other lane. The bus that was behind me saw that, and while it was stopped decided to press the acceleration and hit me on the front driver side fairing. The bus did not stop until my car scratched the whole side of the bus, for maybe extra damage. Basically i got owned!
Police officers arrive and long story short they stated that it is my word against the bus drivers and decided to charge me with unsafe lane change. The problem is that she deliberately hit me.
I am thinking if i should take it to court, and if i do should i hire someone like redline. It is still my word against hers, but when considering the consequences of a at fault accident with one ticket at 20yrs old i am thinking that i am screwed.
Unfortunately the passangers hurried on another bus seconds after the accident, so except my passangers there are no witnesses.
Give it a try but if you were the one merging they're gonna screw you over. Plus TTC drivers are held to a high regard (due to training, experience) so honestly bro even if ur 100% right you're gonna get screwed.
As for your charge, I wouldn't worry about it. The Crown has to prove you made an unsafe lane change, with no officer witnessing it (as opposed to a speeding charge) it'll be a hard case to prove AND they'd need the TTC driver or other witnesses there to do it.
www.durhaminline.com Inline Hockey in Durham Region
OFAH member
My civil libertarianism grows daily when confronted with the obvious injustices I witness.
maybe you can get her driving record or personal record in court, likely not the first time.Originally Posted by mat2312
also check for marks on your car from the push. take tons of photo's
TTC employees are basically untouchable...the union will protect them!
As a former TTC employee all that I will say is bad news for you!!
Bikes R what unite us, what kind should not matter!
Next time check your mirrors and wait until it's safe... it doesn't matter if you've got your signal on, traffic in the other lane still has the right of way. Hopefully you've learned your lesson before you kill someone.
What from the word purpose dont you understand?
You know when someone has a bad case of road rage and they flip you the finger, well she didn't flip me the bird she slammed me with her bus.
It was like this....
I am halfway in her lane and waiting for the green light, i wait, and wait she is stopped behind me honking that i should go back in the other lane. Light turns green, i get ready to fully merge and she slams into me as soon as the car in front started moving.
wow so she honked THEN she moved?
did you get any witnesses names? Maybe a post on craigslist or the newspapers to see if there were any witnesses?
www.durhaminline.com Inline Hockey in Durham Region
OFAH member
My civil libertarianism grows daily when confronted with the obvious injustices I witness.
I think it's funny that TTC rushes passengers/witnesses off the bus and on their way.
Did they not have to fill out some kind of report?
They were involved in an accident after all!
the TTC's legions of lawyers probably pay everyone off to keep their mouths shut.
you don't often hear of anyone "getting injured" on a TTC bus as a result of an accident, etc. i wonder why....
sorry...i'm just bitter that our city is basically run by the TTC (or the TTC run the city).
I hate the TTC. I used to take it twice a year, once in spring to pick up my bike from storage and once in the fall after putting my bike in storage.
"I got a new spleen from a guy who liked to ride motorcycles". Fry, Futurama
My bike is a video star! youtube.com/watch?v=Ju9caIDWQ40
It gets pretty awful, especially in winter. On Friday I waited over an hour for a bus at keele station at rush hour. Well over 100 people were waiting, a few muttering about how they would give it to the driver when he came. The trip took about twice as long as well, because of the weather and traffic.
I think the drivers are under a lot of pressure this time of year, more than usual anyway.
I am a TTC operator and let me tell you that passengers are injured daily on surface vehicles. The reason is that the bus operator is cut off by impatient and aggressive drivers forcing the driver to hit the brakes abruptly and passengers not holding on to the rails. TTC operators are generally very safe and efficient drivers and only want to provide the best service they can. This becomes difficult when the general public does not understand that operators like car drivers are affected by traffic, weather and unforseen circumstances.
She had 2 union reps there within the hour first of all.
Second i do understand they are in a lot of pressure but come on purposely hitting me is unimaginable. Can you imagine if she would of done that when i was on the bike!
I got pretty much owned.
The police officer asked me 3 questions but stayed with her for 1 hour with her union rep.
He wrote 30km/h in his report when we where standing still.
I am sure she is not on her first offence. Or if she is she will do it again. And maybe one day someone is going to film that. Then she will get what she deserves. I think i should get a camera in my car.
Imagine if you would ram every vehicle that would cut you off?
On the other hand, the bus driver can't post her version of what happened, so who knows what the truth is. Your version sounds sketchy, at best. I'd be more apt to believe the signal and cut off version of this story.
Thats what the police officer told me too. But that was not what happened.
She said that there are 2 stories of what happened and she is not sure about the culpability of the bus driver in ramming me. The markings from the accident showed that i was not fully in the other lane thus from an "accident" perspective it would be my fault.
But she did ram me!
Did you get a ticket for this? If you did, these are the ones that are tougher to beat in court.
Some of the TTC busses have cameras in them. I've seen them located on the ceiling of the bus, for driver/passanger protection. If the bus in question has cameras and you can get a hold of the video, then you could maybe prove that the bus was completely stopped, before it hit you (even though camera is focused inside the bus, the outside, background movement/or lack of would be obvious).
You should tell all your paesans to take a chill!! I can tell you of 3 separate incidents where these clowns have basically sent me into oncoming traffic. Last summer on my way home from work on my bike; a driver cut me off so bad he almost killed me. That's not the upsetting part. When i pull up at the next light; he starts challenging me and inviting me to come in and fight in the bus. If i was some nut bar; would've love to smash his face!!But instead i stop and call the cops. They give me the number to the TTC. After talking to them; they told me i would hear back. Ya right!! Long story short; you and your boys are out of control with the new merging law!! I believe every word this guy is saying about this driver because 90% of the TTC drivers are out there driving like this!!
I had 2 incidents last summer. The first one I was going through queens part on Avenue/university and the bus driver couldn't stay in his lane and forced me almost into the sidewalk. I sent a letter to the TTC with time and date and got a letter saying they were looking into it but didn't hear anything back. The other time was after the new merging law which to most TTC drivers seems to mean that they don't need to check their mirrors before changing lanes. I know they have the right of way but when I am traveling the same speed right beside the bus the operators still have to check mirrors. I pulled up to the lights next to the bus and asked the operator what the hell he was doing and he said it was my fault because the busses have the right of way and I was expected to move out of the way when he changes lanes. After my first experience with writing a letter I didn't bother. I am now starting to wonder in many of the cases of the drivers being attacked if they had it coming. I used to side with the driver but now I can understand why many get attacked. I'm not even going to get started on the TTC guys in the booth who can't put down the book they are reading to look at me when I request tokens or tickets.
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