Trying to find out Bus company name following near miss

highdef

On the way in to work earlier (at about 10am), I was on the N4/R148 inbound in the left lane at junction 1 (with the M50) and as I was just about to pass over the M50, a coach joined the slip lane from the M50. This was 2 lanes away from me. At the point where the coach began to move to lane 2, we were travelling side by side at at around the same speed. However, instead of just moving into lane 2 the coach continued into my lane, all as one maneuvor. Now, my car must have been invisible even though it is bright white and I have DLRs. I had nowwhere to go so I dropped anchors. The bus was inches from hitting me but continued on its merry way. Meanwhile, to avoid collission, I ended up hitting and mounting the kerb and barely missed the guard rail. As a result I have a nasty gash in the tyre that will now need replacing.

I couldn't get the reg number of the bus in time but the only thing I know is that it was a winey reddish colour and was unbranded. It also had blue fasten seat belt signs all along the side windows. Could anyone help to ID the bus company so that I might be able to follow up on this?

Attached photo shows the approximate position of myself and the coach at the point of the near collission.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/geraghtyg/25thAug2014-Nearmisswithcoach_zps0fd7921a.jpg

corktina

You were in his blind spot no doubt and he made a mistake not spotting you or whatever. I'd just forget it...you avoided an accident.... 1 nil to you

highdef

Perhaps....and I would not have been too bothered had I been in lane 2 however I was in lane 1 and he went in a straight line from the slip across lane 2 and into lane 1 where I was.
If he was being the professional driver that he or she is supposed to be, the driver would have had the cop on to ensure that the lane changes were 2 completely different maneuvors.....Mirror, signal, maneuvor and then mirror, signal, maneuvor a second time. There were passengers on the bus so all the more reason for me regarding this as either dangerous driving or driving without due care and attention. Because the driver made 2 lane changes in 2 single movement, I had no possibility to react quickly enough to allow the movements.

The only reason I could have been in the blindspot was due to bad driving and complete lack of observation of the coach driver.

end of the road

corktina wrote: »

You were in his blind spot no doubt and he made a mistake not spotting you or whatever.

or, he's an idiot driver who thinks he can behave whatever way he wants because he is driving a coach. have seen it god knows how many times before. time to lower the speed limits back to 60 for these and trucks even on the motor way. there is no room for a blind spot on such vehicles

corktina wrote: »

I'd just forget it...you avoided an accident.... 1 nil to you

no, he should follow it up. just because its a coach doesn't mean the drivers are exempt from having to behave on the roads. infact this nonsense is proof that the penalties for coaches and coach drivers aren't high enough.

Technoprisoner

try the garda carriage office...if this is the buses normal route they might be able to tell who operates that route

foggy_lad

Technoprisoner wrote: »

try the garda carriage office...if this is the buses normal route they might be able to tell who operates that route

All coaches from the southeast should be using this route from the Naas road onto the M50 then through Palmerstown into the City Centre because all of Inchicore has a 3/3.5tonne weight restriction.

Did it look anything like this one?

paddyland

end of the road wrote: »

time to lower the speed limits back to 60

I bet you'd happily sit behind a line of twenty or thirty coaches and trucks all doing 60kph, all the way from Mullingar to Westport, and not try to overtake anywhere. Because that should be the LAW!

highdef

foggy_lad wrote: »

All coaches from the southeast should be using this route from the Naas road onto the M50 then through Palmerstown into the City Centre because all of Inchicore has a 3/3.5tonne weight restriction.

Did it look anything like this one?

It did indeed look very much like that. I din't get to see the front of the coach though as I was at no point ahead of it.....only the side followed by the rear following the point where my car got friendly with the kerb :P

The colour is right and the lack of branding also looks familiar. I don't think it had the yellow design things on it though. Any idea what company that is? I may be able to follow up on it although as we all know, the driver just has to say that nothing happened.....although if the bus in question has rear facing cameras, then that is a different story!

Mr.Frame

Your word against the drivers.Unless you have witnesses to the incident,you haven't a hope.
Forget about it and get on with your life

end of the road

Mr.Frame wrote: »

Your word against the drivers.Unless you have witnesses to the incident,you haven't a hope.
Forget about it and get on with your life

no he shouldn't get on with his life. he should seek legal advice if needs be. we cannot have coach drivers behaving in this manner.

Orion

Mr.Frame wrote: »

Your word against the drivers.Unless you have witnesses to the incident,you haven't a hope.
Forget about it and get on with your life

Not true. I made a report some time ago about another coach company performing a dangerous overtake on me while cycling. They had their own cctv footage on the bus - and to their credit accepted that what the driver had done was dangerous and had initiated internal disciplinary action.

You should definitely follow it up.

cython

Mr.Frame wrote: »

Your word against the drivers.Unless you have witnesses to the incident,you haven't a hope.
Forget about it and get on with your life

This is absolute tripe. At the very least this deserves to be followed up with the company in question, as while this may get put down to a minor lapse on the driver's part, the consequences could have been much more major (and the OP is out of pocket here for the tyre already, and potentially even suspension damage if they mounted the kerb).

While I'm not out to see the driver strung up and pursued by the Gardai (everyone makes mistakes after all, and this may be just thta), if this was a genuine mistake there is a very real possibility that the bus driver isn't aware of having made the mistake, and may do so again with more serious consequences. At the very least, this should be followed with the bus company so that they can have a quiet word and the driver might improve their observation and behaviour towards other road users.

Perhaps this is all a pipe dream, but there is even a completely malice-free reason to pursue this, IMHO.

highdef

cython wrote: »

This is absolute tripe. At the very least this deserves to be followed up with the company in question, as while this may get put down to a minor lapse on the driver's part, the consequences could have been much more major (and the OP is out of pocket here for the tyre already, and potentially even suspension damage if they mounted the kerb).

While I'm not out to see the driver strung up and pursued by the Gardai (everyone makes mistakes after all, and this may be just thta), if this was a genuine mistake there is a very real possibility that the bus driver isn't aware of having made the mistake, and may do so again with more serious consequences. At the very least, this should be followed with the bus company so that they can have a quiet word and the driver might improve their observation and behaviour towards other road users.

Perhaps this is all a pipe dream, but there is even a completely malice-free reason to pursue this, IMHO.

Completely agreed cython. I most certainly am not out to get the driver in question but am more concerned about the driving behaviour in general....momentary lack in concentration is a possibility but to drift across two lanes of traffic when joining a road and not noticing that you are encroaching on top of a white car in the left lane and at the same time having passengers in that coach is really what concerns me. That's not right at all.

Whilst it was rather scary to experience this coach drifting towards the side of my car with the guard rail and then 20/30 foot drop to the busy M50 below (in reality I would say the guard rail would have stopped me anyway but at that point in time, I hadn't got time to think of how well the guard rail would hold up if a coach was pushing my car into it), I braked hard and avoided something more serious.

Although foggy_lad has put up a photo of a coach that looks very similar, I still don't know the bus company name so am still unable to pursue anything at this point in time.

Grandad99

highdef wrote: »

At the point where the coach began to move to lane 2, we were travelling side by side at at around the same speed. However, instead of just moving into lane 2 the coach continued into my lane, all as one maneuvor. Now, my car must have been invisible even though it is bright white and I have DLRs. I had nowwhere to go so I dropped anchors.

From your description the coach driver does appear to have dropped two lanes quiet abruptly and without due care.

I am not accusing, only asking, as I am familiar with that stretch and similar where traffic merges from the right, is there any possibility you were doing any of the following;

Driving faster than the much reduced speed limit for that section of road, overtaking on the left, or failing to give way to traffic moving in from your right ?

In my experience, many motorists of all vehicles seem oblivious to these basic rules, particularly where traffic is merging from the right, this traffic has nowhere to go if others don’t allow them in. Many deliberately speed up, overtake on the left and refuse to give way, especially if it’s a truck or bus trying to merge, presumably fearing they will get stuck behind it.

Should you locate the offending bus, most now have multiple external cameras that hold up to 5 days footage, my employer, given the date, time and place could easily identify the alleged offender of such a complaint and would investigate. Disciplinary action would be taken if any wrongdoing by the driver was identified.

highdef

Grandad99 wrote: »

From your description the coach driver does appear to have dropped two lanes quiet abruptly and without due care.

I am not accusing, only asking, as I am familiar with that stretch and similar where traffic merges from the right, is there any possibility you were doing any of the following;

Driving faster than the much reduced speed limit for that section of road, overtaking on the left, or failing to give way to traffic moving in from your right ?

In my experience, many motorists of all vehicles seem oblivious to these basic rules, particularly where traffic is merging from the right, this traffic has nowhere to go if others don’t allow them in. Many deliberately speed up, overtake on the left and refuse to give way, especially if it’s a truck or bus trying to merge, presumably fearing they will get stuck behind it.

Should you locate the offending bus, most now have multiple external cameras that hold up to 5 days footage, my employer, given the date, time and place could easily identify the alleged offender of such a complaint and would investigate. Disciplinary action would be taken if any wrongdoing by the driver was identified.

They are are all very reasonable questions to ask, Grandad99.

I am always very accommodating to other vehicles merging, pulling out of side roads (where safe to do so) much to the detriment of my regular passenger as it "delays us".

I had cruise control on and it was set to about 65/70kmh on the speedo (so was doing a bit under that in reality and if you are familiar with that stretch of road, you will know that is relatively slow) . Unusually, there were no other vehicles in any lanes. Just me in lane 1 (where I had been for some time - I had been in lane 1 before Liffey Valley on ramp, moved to lane 2 to accommodate vehicles merging from Liffey Valley and then moved back to lane 1 before the off ramp for the M50) and the bus merging from the slip from M50 where the incident occurred.

Being on cruise, my speed was more or less static and even with all this, the driver still did not see me. Had I been in lane 2 around the slip (I had absolutely no reason to be in it anyway as lane 1 was empty), I would have moved over to lane 1 to accommodate the coach.

Peppa Pig

highdef wrote: »

I had cruise control on and it was set to about 65/70kmh on the speedo

You do know that the speed limit is only 60km/h from when the roads start to split into the M50 and the Palmerstown junction.

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.355717,-6.396214,3a,75y,86.79h,76.64t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1saMXm8C-mhzxMWYGypP6HLA!2e0

Certainly sounds like the bus driver was wrong, but you have just admitted to speeding.

SteM

Peppa Pig wrote: »

You do know that the speed limit is only 60km/h from when the roads start to split into the M50 and the Palmerstown junction.

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.355717,-6.396214,3a,75y,86.79h,76.64t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1saMXm8C-mhzxMWYGypP6HLA!2e0

Certainly sounds like the bus driver was wrong, but you have just admitted to speeding.

No, the OP didn't to admit to speeding because he said

...and it was set to about 65/70kmh on the speedo (so was doing a bit under that in reality...

Muahahaha

Just wondering if this is a case of dangerous driving and the OP knows the time and location surely the Gardai might be interested in seeing the CCTV footage on the bridge, presuming there is some ?

highdef

I contacted Dublin City Council but they said they don't record the footage :mad:

As for the speeding, I use cruise control all the time as long conditions dictate that it is safe to do so. I tested the speedometer against a couple of GPS receivers to get an idea of how much the speedomoter overreads and I set the cruise control accordingly. In a 120 limit, I set it to 129/130, in a 100 I set to 108/109, in an 80 I set it to 87/88, in a 60 I set it to 66/67 and in a 50 I set it to 54/55 although if in a 50, CC is not regularly suitable to be enabled.

I pass by speed detection vans on the N4 on a regular basis with the CC set to the relevant speed and never have issues, whilst other cars feel the need to hit the brakes and drop their speed to 50/60, proof that they were not paying attention and did not know what speed they were going at in the first place!

Peppa Pig

highdef wrote: »

in a 60 I set it to 66/67

highdef wrote:

I have a fairly accurate idea of what my speedo V actual speed so when conditions permit, I do the following:
in a 30kmh zone, at most I will do 32 - 35 on the speedo
in a 50kmh zone, at most I will do 53 - 55 on the speedo
in a 60kmh zone, at most I will do 64 - 66 on the speedo
in a 80kmh zone, at most I will do 85 - 87 on the speedo
in a 100kmh zone, at most I will do 106 - 108 on the speedo
in a 120kmh zone, at most I will do 127 - 129/130 on the speedo

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=86623602&postcount=25

By your own calculations 66 on your speedo equates to 64kmh. The limit is 60kmh. You were over the limit. Not by a hugh amount and the limit on that road is ridiculously low. I changed car recently and went for cruise control purely to make it easy to stay within the limit on that bloody road.

However if you are looking to take it further someone will ask you what speed you were doing. Being over the limit is not obeying the rules. I'd be reluctant to go to court on it, if it got that far

highdef

Peppa Pig wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=86623602&postcount=25

By your own calculations 66 on your speedo equates to 64kmh. The limit is 60kmh. You were over the limit. Not by a hugh amount and the limit on that road is ridiculously low. I changed car recently and went for cruise control purely to make it easy to stay within the limit on that bloody road.

However if you are looking to take it further someone will ask you what speed you were doing. Being over the limit is not obeying the rules. I'd be reluctant to go to court on it, if it got that far

Ah, very good point however that was a different car. I have a new car (different make and model) since then which seems to over-read a little more than the last. The car I have now over-reads by about 10% which I have read is about the average figure although I'd never make the assumption that this is the case with every car - every car is a bit different after all.

Also, in case there was misunderstanding in my older post you referenced to:
"in a 60kmh zone, at most I will do 64 - 66 on the speedo" - This means that I would have driven at a speed to 64 to 66 on the speedo. I didn't mean that I would be doing a real speed of 64 with a reading of 66 on the speedo.
This would be the case with the other speeds I referenced.

The last car over read by about 8/9% and the current car is more or less bang on 10% over what the speedo says

Peppa Pig

highdef wrote: »

Also, in case there was misunderstanding in my older post you referenced to:
"in a 60kmh zone, at most I will do 64 - 66 on the speedo" - This means that I would have driven at a speed to 64 to 66 on the speedo. I didn't mean that I would be doing a real speed of 64 with a reading of 66 on the speedo.
This would be the case with the other speeds I referenced.

So when you say

in a 120kmh zone, at most I will do 127 - 129/130 on the speedo

You will do up to 127 or 129 or 130, not 127 kmh which shows as 129/130 on the speedo. Yeah right

Anyway, like you I have a pain in my hole, with trucks particularly, doing what the bus did to you. You really need your wits about you on that turn.

paddyland

I am just interested in one little detail of the story.

Given that you say you were travelling at the same speed as the bus, and given (from the satellite image) that you travelled at least a hundred metres or more, matching the speed of the bus, then my question is this.

Knowing that the bus would want your lane (the bus will always want the left lane) were you planning on
a) accelerating ahead (undertaking) to allow the bus fall in behind you,
b) falling back, and letting the bus move left ahead of you, or
c) matching his speed all the way to the lights at Palmerstown and leaving the bus marooned in the outside lane?

What would I have done? I wouldn't have been alongside him in the first place.

highdef

Peppa Pig wrote: »

So when you say

You will do up to 127 or 129 or 130, not 127 kmh which shows as 129/130 on the speedo. Yeah right

QUOTE]

With reference to the above taken from a post last year, my last car didn't have cruise control so there was sometimes a slight variance in speed so variable of about 4kmph is quite acceptable when hills and dips are taken into account.
The new car has CC but no digital readout so it is still set with the analogue speedometer which is why I don't set it to an exact speed and that is why I mentioned speeds such as 108/109, 87/88....etc. Sometimes it may look like I'm doing 108 1/2 or 87 1/2 - the analogue readout is just no as accurate as a digital readout, by its nature.

highdef

paddyland wrote: »

I am just interested in one little detail of the story.

Given that you say you were travelling at the same speed as the bus, and given (from the satellite image) that you travelled at least a hundred metres or more, matching the speed of the bus, then my question is this.

Knowing that the bus would want your lane (the bus will always want the left lane) were you planning on
a) accelerating ahead (undertaking) to allow the bus fall in behind you,
b) falling back, and letting the bus move left ahead of you, or
c) matching his speed all the way to the lights at Palmerstown and leaving the bus marooned in the outside lane?

What would I have done? I wouldn't have been alongside him in the first place.

If you had read my original post, you would have read that the bus crossed straight across from the slip to lane 1, where I was.....one moment he was in the slip and a few seconds later I was dropping anchors as he beared down on top of me after crossing straight from slip to lane 1.

However, had he been driving in a normal manner and had moved to lane 2 and then indicated that he wanted to move to lane 1, the answer would have been:
b) falling back, and letting the bus move left ahead of you

Marhay70

If the bus driver had followed the correct procedure for changing lanes the OP would not have been in a blind spot. Careless at least.

Slunk

Just spotted a bus today on St Johns road by heuston and remembered this thread. It was this bus
http://www.kavanaghcoaches.com/images/img_sub_banner_12.jpg

Belongs to kavanaghs of kilkenny. Probably a bit late now.