who do you think is at fault? (vehicles, brake, lane)

[overtaxedunderpaided]

Just sittin at the computer minding my own business............when my daughter comes home from one her driving lessons............."Sooo how'd it go"?................"Fine?! Except for the bus............never mind"!.....

.......Okay like now you have my Full attention...........what bus? what happened?...........

Whilst making a left, advance green, a bus on the street she was going onto was merging from the bus layby..........however he/she(bus driver) merged not into the closest lane but crossed directly into the other lane(2 lanes)..........this cause my daughter to brake(gently she said)...........driving instructor panicked and braked hard...........causing the immediate fellow left turner to hit them...........

...........i say the biggest culprit is the fellow following too close behind my daughters car(always leave space!)...........next comes the driving instructor.........for perhaps overreacting...........she was slowing down and claimed to see the bus.........although did remark that she didnt "think a bus would ever do that!"...........I dont blame (entirely)the instructor as he would have taken a direct hit and i'd have probably done the same thing with an inexperienced driver............i dont blame the bus driver as one, i am one, and two you dont know what he was trying to get around, and three the view is extremely limited............although if he/she was familliar with this particular stop, light, and danger pitfalls he/she should have been a tad more careful.............
..........a long talk with my daughter...........essentially saying, when it comes to driving you must be prepared for "STUPID" at any moment, the second you let down your guard, your in an accident.............she got off easy!.............who's at fault?

[miu]

What a confusing read! So the car she was in got rear ended? Did she even used her horn to warn the bus driver of her presence?

If her car was rear ended, then the driver behind her was more at fault. In many traffic accidents the blame is shared. And it's true, you have to always be prepared for the unexpected actions of other moving vehicles and pedestrians. I usually have my thumb hovering over the horn button when I am in city traffic and try to anticipate other drivers blind spots.

[Drover]

Do you think you could remove about 450 of the periods and repost? I'm really not trying to be a smartass, I seriously can't follow along.

[thelostsouls]

Instructor's fault. Normal driving entails awareness of the cars BEHIND you as well as in front of you. Your daughter braking gently was the correct thing to do, the instructor overreacted. =)

[Crew Chief]

Ultimately, I'd assign blame to the guy who hit the rear of the car your daughter was driving. (Maybe the driving instructor did overreact; I wasn't there. The guy behind you should have maintained enough space to have stopped) However, I might also call the local bus operator (transit authority?) to ask why the bus operator came out into the second lane instead of going into the lane closest to the layby...) In the defense of bus drivers in general, they are sometimes put in difficult situations due to the stops along the route they must make. Which should tell us to use caution when driving around busses, especially transit and school busses.

(By the way, a "Layby" is a "bus stop" to us Yanks! )

[Roaddog]

The bus driver may had cause it to happen but the guy who hit her should be at fault for failing to leave enough room to stop.

[overtaxedunderpaided]

Originally Posted by Roaddog

The bus driver may had cause it to happen but the guy who hit her should be at fault for failing to leave enough room to stop.

That sums it up for me too. Turns out it was one crappy car hitting another ie. nobody wanted to call the cops.
And it's called a bus stop here too,lol........a bus layby is the area the bus goes into to get out of the way of traffic............yes i know there's not enough of them!

[miu]

Steve Carell is in a new movie called Dan in Real Life. The trailer on tv has him trying to teach someone to drive at a busy intersection, and there is a school bus involved. Watching the trailer made me think of this thread.