This morning just after 8:00 am I was nearly forced off the road by a school bus. I was on a side street, stopped at the intersection at the stop sign. I was signaling to turn right onto a major road. The bus was on The major road turning right onto my side street. The driver pulled onto the side street in such a way that completing the turn was impossible without either the bus hitting my car or me moving my car. The bus kept going forward. I pulled up to the curb and partially into the intersection. The bus came very close to hitting my car. I could not see to complete my turn, and the traffic was quickly passing the bus and moving back into the right lane so it was not safe for me to make the turn. I could not back up because there were cars behind me. After the bus driver completed the turn, I was left with the nose of my car partially in the intersection, my right wheel jammed against the curb.
Only by making a wide turn, taking two lanes, could I get onto the main road without getting hung up onto the curb. Waiting for a break to do so took some time and the drivers in the two cars behind me were impatient. I finally was able to make my turn, just barely, but by that time I was panicky. I immediately pulled off into a parking lot because I was too upset to drive further. Kelly drove me back home and went to work. I am still shaking. The thought of trying to drive to work right now makes me panicky.
Bus drivers should know how to drive busses. They should be able to make turns safely and not ones that force cars out of their lanes and into traffic or off the road. This is not the first time that I have witnessed school bus drivers near here that did not seem aware that they were driving a big yellow bus and not a compact car.
I have the bus number. Kelly called into the bus company to tell them. They seemed not interested. I wrote my account which I will put into a couple letters. I think one will be to the police requesting that they look into traffic near that intersection, as this intersection is very dangerous. Cars do routinely speed on the main road making it more so. One letter to the school district to tell them that they have hired a bus company with incompetant drivers that does not seem to care that its drivers are incompetant. One to the bus company, as a follow up to the call. Maybe someone will get lessons on how to turn a bus.
Glad you’re okay, lee, and it sounds as though you did the right thing! Indeed, it’s very scary when another vehicle looks as though it’s going to hit you. A suggestion: have somebody else read over your account of the incident before sending it out in letters and things, because I’m not sure the one you posted here would be entirely clear to somebody who hadn’t seen the situation. At least, I couldn’t quite figure out what the story was. Anyway, have a nice relaxing bubble bath and don’t fret about it too much.
And why did the two assholes behind me pull immediately up to close the gap when I had to move to avoid the bus hitting me? If they had not pulled up, I could have backed up to where I had been safely stopped at the intersection and taken the next opening instead of waiting for both lanes to clear or risk getting hung up on the curb?
I think it is clearer with the road names and directions in it. Thank you for your advice.
Part of me thought I should just stay where I was, stopped legally at the stop sign, but that would have left the bus sticking out into the main road having to back up or hit me. I was worried that bus was going to be hit from behind. Cars do drive very fast on that stretch and might not have stopped in time.
Was this on Oakton? I have to take Oakton all the way out to 294 every morning and I can tell you it is like running the gauntlet when the busses are out.
I did not really stop shaking and calm down until 10:30 and then I had an adrenaline crash. More shakiness. I went back to bed and had a nightmare. When I got up it was after 2 pm. I feel exhausted. I will get up earlier tomorrow so I can get out before the busses get here.
It seems like such an overreaction for a situation in which no one was actually hurt, but it was very close. I am not one of the “but think of the children” types, but the thought that a bus full of children were in danger upset me much more than if it had been an ass in a semi imcompetantly making that turn. I am sure because a very similar situation happened with a semi, except no one was behind me and I was able to back up out of the way rather than pull partially into the busy road.
Hey, lee, that’s one of the most positive things I’ve heard in a long time - glad to know there are people like you still out there. I’m glad you’re okay - I understand being shaken like that. Take care.
Something similar happened to me last spring, but the bus actually hit me. We were both stopped at a red light on a highway with a metal divider. The bus driver was in the right lane and I was in the left, but he got the jump on me through the light, and then he tried to get into the left lane, seemingly unaware that I was there. I honked my horn and slammed on the brakes, but he still crushed my passenger side front to hell. $1500 to fix it, courtesy of…
…wait for it…
The school district I worked for. Yes, there were students of mine on the bus, waving to me as I was quivering, and swearing like a dock worker I might add. It was my first car accident ever. In any case, no physical harm to anyone, but the driver was an ooooooold man who probably just didn’t see me in the blind spot but should have known I was there. I actually felt bad for the guy, he seemed very much upset by his accident.
Many of these bus drivers don’t quite have a total handle on the whole bus driving schtick, and it can be dangerous. I know exactly what you went through today and I feel for you. Glad you’re OK.
This may invite a dogpile, but so be it. Thusfar, only one side has been considered. Let’s offer a few thoughts before the bus driver is cast into the pit of eternal darkness for almost striking another vehicle.
First off, how many posters here have driven anything bigger than a van?
Do we know that the bus driver was the regular driver, or was he/she a substitute-a person perhaps unfamiliar with the route, who is doing their level best to operate a vehicle 2-3 times as long as your car filled with boisterous children, and do so with all due regard for the safety of the children and the motoring public?
I don’t know the details of the intersection, and how easily it is to complete a turn without crossing the center line. Is there a stop line? Was the vehicle of the OP past it?
What I do know after many years of holding a CDL, is that car drivers do not give large vehicles a break. If I can swing a corner to get off a busy road without hitting you, I will, sometimes taking part of your lane. The OP made space, which was considerate. The bus didn’t hit you. No hurt, no foul. Move on.
The OP made space because she was forced to. But the bus was not entitled to take up a part of her lane, no matter how large it was or how inexperienced the driver or how busy the road it is turning from happens to be. Other drivers should never be forced to move in order to accomodate your turn, if they are, your turn is not safe. If you cannot turn while they’re there, then you wait until they aren’t there, you don’t force your way in – as the driver did in lee’s situation – and make them move in an unsafe manner. If the bus driver hadn’t already started the turn, and was sitting still on the main road, lee would have been able to make the right turn into the right lane on the main road, because the traffic from that lane would be behind the bus, not whipping around him as he was half on the main road and half onto the side street lee was turning from.
Similarly, it is never appropriate to pass then bounce back into your original lane if you’re a driver on the main road in a situation like this. Shame on all of those people, too.
Just because the bus didn’t hit her doesn’t mean that there’s no harm done. Are you made of stone? Having a vehicle that weighs three gross tons bearing down on you and apparently prepared to hit you if you don’t take evasive actions is a harrowing experience. lee was entitled to be shaken – and now, more than entitled to be angry at the bus driver for being impatient, unsafe and overly aggressive.
danceswithcats I am sure that I do not want anyone who has difficulty driving a large vehicle driving a school bus. I am not sympathetic to anyone who chooses this job without being fully able to handle it. I do think that if we cannot get competent drivers as things are today then we need to spend more on training and/or salaries to attract competent drivers. I vote for tax increases for school everytime they come up, partly for this reason.
I was in my lane stopped at the stop sign with cars behind me before the bus turned into the lane. She should not have attempted the turn while the lane I was in was occupied unless she could make the turn without using that lane. She should be able to make the turn without using the lane, as I have seen other busses do so.
Yes, except when I need to make that one turn. I made sure we left early enough to avoid seeing the school bus yesterday, but I still felt panicky at that intersection. Oncethrough it, I was ok. Otherwise, I feel fine. Thank you for asking.
IMHO, you need to pour yourself a strong steaming cup of ‘Get Over It’.
With over thirty years of driving on my record, more than a third of which was/is in metropolitan areas, perhaps I’ve become accustomed to aggressive, impatient, and ignorant drivers who sometimes invade my safety zone. The only way to avoid them is to stay home. I’m also quite certain that they’re not out to get me.
In response to your question TeaElle, I’m not made of stone-indeed my most gut-wrenching moment was when some idiot in a car zipped into my safety zone and slammed on their brakes to make a turn. I could see down into the back seat of the car I damn near flattened-and I saw child car seats. Killing babies is not something I wish to live with, thank you.
A much wiser man once observed that we cannot choose what happens to us as we pass through this life-only how we react to it. I could choose to be overcome by my fears and stop driving, or I can hit the horn, extend a finger, roar ASSHOLE!, and then be thankful that I wasn’t in an accident, smile and go on with my day. It works for me. YMMV.