Buses repeatedly hitting pedestrians in London

[HollyRoseHill]

I am concerned about the rising number of buses hitting pedestrians in London.

Most recently in March, a 12-year-old dancer crossing the street near her home in south London was killed by a double-decker bus www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12794923; or the early morning October 2010 accident that killed and dragged for over a mile a medical student in Hampstead www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23884561-bus-driver-in-death-crash-case-i-didnt-know-that-id-hit-anyone.do; and this tragic story of a father crossing Oxford Street, during the Christmas shopping season of December 2009, who miraculously survived and is compaigning to bring public awareness to this issue www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/oxford_street_battle_by_dad_who_cheated_death_1_847571.

Is it a vehicle design flaw? Improper driver trainer? Why is CCTV footage disappearing? To whom are the bus companies responsible? How many people must die before a thorough investigation of this alarmingly frequent occurance is undertaken?

I also have not read this thread - although from sound of it there are some very crazy people on it.

But, as a warning about stats. I had a road traffic accident with a bus when I was PG with DD. Which sounds awful, and looks awful in statistics, but it was actually going about half a mile an hour as I wandered in front of it as it was pulling away (I'd hit my head and had mild concussion). The force was so low I didn't even fall over, was just a bit achey and sore.

So beware of huge statistics about bus related accidents. You don't really know how serious they were. Obviously there are also a few awful and serious accidents though and you would hope they would be avoided if possible.

Jaywalkers should be fined. But in the UK, the pedestrian has priority over vehicles. If someone walks out into the road we need to allow it, but give them a piece of our mind as we go past

Here are some more statistics:

It is worth noting the following from the London Assembly report - Streets Ahead;

?The annual collision rate per kilometre in the area remains much higher than on other roads in London, with 56.4 collisions per kilometre on Oxford Street and 27 per kilometre on Regent Street compared to 1.6 collisions per kilometre on ?all London roads?."

"The Institute of Advanced Motorists calculates that there is an accident involving a bus in the Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street area every 3.4 days."

I can't wait until this story gets even bigger and it starts impacting tourism on the blood bath that is Oxford Street. It's not worth heading over the Olympics if it means that your son, brother, or father is crushed by a bus and no one really cares enough to make Oxford Street safe.

Well IngridBergman you get the point a cunt is a cunt no matter how they make their way from A to B, it just seems stupid to me this thread has lasted so long and become it's all car drivers/pedestrians/ cyclists/bus drivers fault.

the fault is with the cunts and they travel in a verity of ways.

Blame the cunts, if they be pedestrians or cyclists nature will take its course, if they be behind the wheel then we should be calling for more testing, I really think drivers should be tested every few years to make sure they haven't taken up any bad habits.

bus drivers are tested regularly.

Well said Ryoko - especially the point about silent cars. I've been amazed on this and other threads by people who think it's OK for manufacturers to suddenly remove half the information that warns pedestrians of imminent danger.

It is well established that human beings react much more quickly and understand far more if urgent, safety-critical information is given in more than one way. Someone on another thread pointed out that's why airplane cockpits have warning lights AND alarms. Yet apparently it's fine for companies to tear up the rulebook without any consultation or discussion and expect pedestrians to instantly delete all the experience they have gained since toddler-hood about how to cross roads safely. Astonishing.

I saw a bendy bus plough into a bus stop once in Central London, killing two people. The road was quiet at the time, I think it was a bank holiday, maybe Boxing Day or just after. It made one almighty bang. I thought it was a bomb at first.

It didn't make the news, which I always thought was strange.

It's not just that, what about the blind? they are entitled to cross roads how are they to cross roads on their own if cars are silent, there are a lot of blind and partially sighted people in this country.

As you say people automatically pay attention to sound, thats why ambulances and the like have sirens, because the flashing lights are not all ways enough to get peoples attention.

Cars are full of distracting/relaxing things anyway that lead to accidents, comfy seats (some with massage) , air con, stereos, SatNavs, it's like a moving living room sofa.

Yup, I asked some of the people saying silent cars were fine and any pedestrians who couldn't see them coming deserved to die that question. They said blind people were generally very careful about crossing the road. Doesn't really help, IMO...

We were on the footpath at the time. If the bus comes onto the footpath then it is the bus driver's fault. If it runs into the bus stop then it is the bus driver's fault. If it clips someone on the kerb with the mirror, then it is the bus driver's fault. The bus driver in our case didn't come onto the footpath because he was moving so slowy he slid into another car instead of mounting the kerb. Bus drivers are not actually trying to mow down pedestrians.

If you step in front of a moving vehicle, especially a big red loud one then it is your fault, roads are dangerous places you need to check carefully before stepping on to one.

It doesn't matter if you are a nice 16 year old girl, if you step in front of a bus the laws of physics are not going to take that into account. They are large, they have momentum, it is hard to stop in time, you will not win. So before you step into the road, look and then look again. Don't they teach that jingle to kids in the UK? The Look to the Left, Then Look to the Right, Then Look to the Left Again?

London has millions of people, and lots and lots of buses. The astonishing thing isn't that sometimes people are killed by them, the astonishing thing is that mostly they are not.

Agree that electric cars need to make some sort of sound, it doesn't have to be a loud sound but it needs to be a clear and distinctive one so blind people know they are there.

Yup, children here are taught the Green Cross Code - stop, listen, look right look left look right again.

Didn't stop a fucker running over my foot while I was on the pavement waiting to cross... (an uninsured fucker).