USA Bus Lines

As a bus driver, would I get off with "accidentally" colliding with cars parked on the bus stops?

Any bus driver will agree that this is a widespread problem on almost every bus stop; it causes back-ups in traffic because the bus cannot get onto the stop, and causes bus passengers trouble in lifting babies, push-chairs, shopping etc etc onto the bus. Elderly passengers suffer particularly. Selfish drivers excuse themselves by saying "I'll only be a minute". Well, it would only take a second for a bus driver to accidentally on purpose side-swipe the car.

Public Comments

1. Maybe you would have studied more so you wouldn't have such a job!!
2. yes it may be a widespread problem and people are selfish and traffic will get backed up. That's the way of the world. If you value your job I wouldn't "accidentally" hit anything. Of course it will be an accident, but the bus company will probably realize that having you as a driver is a liability.
3. You might get away with it once or twice, but if you did it too often, your company would consider you an unsafe driver, their insurance rates would start going up because of you and they would be forced to "let you go". So, if you want to keep your job, it wouldn't be a good idea even if they couldn't prove you did it on purpose.
4. It doesn't matter that the car was illegally parked. What would matter is that you hit a parked vehicle.
5. your no bus driver, that's for sure, not with that sorry attitude, frustrated teenager maybe, but no bus driver. You would endanger your life and the lives of each passenger on the bus, plus any pedestrians or victims in the cars you hit , because it makes you wait? what a load of crap. Life is a bitch sometime but you don't cause thousands of dollars in damage "Accidentally" just to prove a point. A far more effective way would be to work with the city, have the cops impound and fine heavily cars caught violating a city ordinance, this puts money in the cities pockets, and the money leaving the dipsticks pockets will have them all hollering, (but leaving open) the bus stops from then on. There is always a better way to do things, besides using "accidentally" causing a lot of damage/and or injuring people unintentionally or otherwise.
6. I am not a bus driver. I am, however, a professional driver, 40 years driving with Ma Bell. I do *not* like buses. I do *not* like bus drivers. I aim at them to see if they want to "accidentally" collide with me. I *KNOW* the law re: "Right-of-Way" -- the bus driver has to yield. I know that if a bus driver is involved in a collsion that: 1. The bus company or city will pay for repairing my vehicle. 2. Everybody on the bus will the hating the bus driver since they will have to get off the bus and wait for another bus to be brought from the bus garage. 3. The bus driver will have about two days worth of paperwork, and their bosses' will have weeks/months of paperwork. 4. If the bus driver has a record of collisions he will be fired. 5. If the bus driver was involved in collisions, and I thought that the driver did "accidentally on purpose" on the collision -- I would be pushing to have the bus driver on charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon. Which is why real bus drivers will NOT "accidentally on purpose side-swipe" another vehicle.
7. in some cities vehicles parked in bus zones get towed away
8. Only if you're fed up being a bus driver, and don't mind explaining on your next job application that you got fired
9. I do agree as a frequent bus passenger that it's a pain when someone parks in a bus stop. I don't think you should "accidentally" damage a car that parks in the bus stop, but I would definitely support some kind of camera on the bus where you can record the license plate of such a car so they'll get a ticket mailed to them, similar to a red light camera. In NYC I notice taxis are the worst for stopping in bus stops, not necessarily the yellow cabs in Manhattan but all the gypsy cabs in the outer boroughs.