Yes, about 500 yards down the road from the accident.

That would be considered too far away to use.

True, maybe they should paint one by that particular stop.
This is unrelated, but if this was indeed a designated school drop off zone
they might as well have painted a crossing.


This is very likely, I don't know enough about this. But it does not look
like a designated stop to me.

It wouldn't. All it would look like is a suitable place to stop, close to
a house.

As I said, I don't know enough to say. You are probably right.


At that time of day - the only reason for a school bus being there would
be to drop off kid(s).

But yep, if I see a school bus beside the road I *expect* a child to run
out. That is why school buses have school bus boards....

What do you mean by school bus board?
For the record, this school bus is a small 'mini bus', (seats 12 I think),
and does not say 'school bus' on it.
But, for all intents and purposes it is a school bus.

I know it is not excuse, but the road is a fairly busy road, (one of those
small busy village road), with many cars doing 30, so you expect the
kids/drivers/parents to be more careful. It is not as if the car came around
the corner unexpected, in fact it is a fairly long straight road.


The child has not other major injuries apart from a few bumps and
bruises.
From what I can see there is no other damage to the car.

Try putting the car somewhere dark and having a look at the ns front with
a uv light.

I don't have a UV light handy. Maybe the CPS will come and do it soon, I
really don't know how this works.

The escort comes with the bus, these days. Possibly intended to stop the
driver bonking the kids, but also to take kids across the road, where
necessary. The madness of having one may not have spread to your area,
yet.

There was no escort in the bus.
There was only someone waiting for the kid in the house, across the road.

--
Sue


Simon

On 18 Sep, 19:40, "Simon" wrote:
Hello,

Today my wife gave a lift to a colleague to the bus stop, our 3 month old
baby was in the car chair, (in the back seat).

as she was driving down the road she noticed a small school bus on the side
of the road, she saw no kids, (it is a village road and it was stopped on
the side of the road, not at a bus stop or anything).

As she overtook the bus a kid ran out from the front of the bus and hit the
driver door, (broke a side mirror).
The wife stopped in front of the bus, the colleague got out of the car to
help, the wife stayed in the car with the baby, a bit shocked).


Are we missing something here? If, from the way you describe it, the
bus is on the left of the road with the kid getting out and running
round the front of the bus and across the road as your wife 'overtook'
ie passed the offside of the stationary bus, how would the child hit
the *driver* door and mirror? Or is that not what happened?

Toom

As she overtook the bus a kid ran out from the front of the bus and hit
the
driver door, (broke a side mirror).
The wife stopped in front of the bus, the colleague got out of the car to
help, the wife stayed in the car with the baby, a bit shocked).


Are we missing something here? If, from the way you describe it, the
bus is on the left of the road with the kid getting out and running
round the front of the bus and across the road as your wife 'overtook'
ie passed the offside of the stationary bus, how would the child hit
the *driver* door and mirror? Or is that not what happened?


Sorry, you are quite right indeed.
The mirror is broken on the passenger side.
When I got home yesterday and typed that post I obviously wasn't thinking
properly.

Simon

Toom Tabard gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying:

Today my wife gave a lift to a colleague to the bus stop, our 3 month
old baby was in the car chair, (in the back seat).

as she was driving down the road she noticed a small school bus on the
side of the road, she saw no kids, (it is a village road and it was
stopped on the side of the road, not at a bus stop or anything).

As she overtook the bus a kid ran out from the front of the bus and hit
the driver door, (broke a side mirror).
The wife stopped in front of the bus, the colleague got out of the car
to help, the wife stayed in the car with the baby, a bit shocked).

Are we missing something here? If, from the way you describe it, the bus
is on the left of the road with the kid getting out and running round
the front of the bus and across the road as your wife 'overtook' ie
passed the offside of the stationary bus, how would the child hit the
*driver* door and mirror? Or is that not what happened?

You're right - something's missing. About the only feasible scenario I
can come up with is that if the wife was driving a LHD car, in the UK -
or a RHD car in a LHD country, in which case why ask in a uk.legal
group...?

If the bus was on the same side of the road as the car, facing in the
same direction, the child would hit the nearside door. That's normally
the passenger door, as you say.

If the bus was on the opposite side of the road, facing in the same
direction as the car, the child could have exited the bus door and headed
for the opposite kerb, but would be unlikely to have run round the front.
This would seem to be negligent on the bus driver's part, leaving
passengers to board in the middle of the road - but also on the wife's
part, since the bus door would have been visibly open.

If the bus was on the opposite side of the road, facing the car, the
child would have been clearly visible running past the front of the bus,
and the wife would have had to stop behind the bus.

Simon wrote:

Yes, about 500 yards down the road from the accident.

That would be considered too far away to use.

True, maybe they should paint one by that particular stop.
This is unrelated, but if this was indeed a designated school drop off
zone they might as well have painted a crossing.

They don't paint anything. They vary year by year, term by term, as new
families move in and kids start school, or change schools. Very often
one family = one stopping place.



This is very likely, I don't know enough about this. But it does not
look like a designated stop to me.

It wouldn't. All it would look like is a suitable place to stop, close
to a house.

As I said, I don't know enough to say. You are probably right.


At that time of day - the only reason for a school bus being there
would be to drop off kid(s).

But yep, if I see a school bus beside the road I *expect* a child to
run out. That is why school buses have school bus boards....

What do you mean by school bus board?

http://www.freightproducts.co.uk/edi...Bus%20Sign.jpg

For the record, this school bus is a small 'mini bus', (seats 12 I
think), and does not say 'school bus' on it.
But, for all intents and purposes it is a school bus.

It's a school bus if it has a school bus board, front and back. They
fold up to hide the sign, when not actually being used as a school bus.
eg, as soon as the last kid is dropped off, the signs are folded in half
so they don't show (typically).

So a school bus board on a bus = school bus actually en route picking up
or dropping off kids.


I know it is not excuse, but the road is a fairly busy road, (one of
those small busy village road), with many cars doing 30, so you expect
the kids/drivers/parents to be more careful. It is not as if the car
came around the corner unexpected, in fact it is a fairly long straight
road.

If it is wide enough, many bus drivers will do two three point turns, to
drop the kid off on the right side of the road - if there is no
escort/parent/elder child.



The child has not other major injuries apart from a few bumps and
bruises.
From what I can see there is no other damage to the car.

Try putting the car somewhere dark and having a look at the ns front
with a uv light.

I don't have a UV light handy. Maybe the CPS will come and do it soon, I
really don't know how this works.

IIRC, blood absorbs UV like crazy - so any spots or smears of blood look
jet-black compared to the surroundings.

The CPS won't be round - they don't investigate crimes, they have the
police to do that for them.

The police won't be round now. Clearly no one person was totally to
blame, so they will NFA it and leave it to the insurance company(s) to
deal with.


The escort comes with the bus, these days. Possibly intended to stop
the driver bonking the kids, but also to take kids across the road,
where necessary. The madness of having one may not have spread to your
area, yet.

There was no escort in the bus.

Ah well, give it a year or so..

There was only someone waiting for the kid in the house, across the road.

Well yeah - otherwise, depending on the age of the kid and whether an
elder sibling was there, the driver wouldn't let it off the bus. Drivers
don't drop off young children, in the middle of nowhere, in the hope
that there is someone home to receive them..

--
Sue

What do you mean by school bus board?

http://www.freightproducts.co.uk/edi...Bus%20Sign.jpg

For the record, this school bus is a small 'mini bus', (seats 12 I
think), and does not say 'school bus' on it.
But, for all intents and purposes it is a school bus.

It's a school bus if it has a school bus board, front and back. They fold
up to hide the sign, when not actually being used as a school bus. eg, as
soon as the last kid is dropped off, the signs are folded in half so they
don't show (typically).

So a school bus board on a bus = school bus actually en route picking up
or dropping off kids.

You are probably right, I don't know if that one was clearly displaying the
board.
It probably was, I would need to ask the wife.


If it is wide enough, many bus drivers will do two three point turns, to
drop the kid off on the right side of the road - if there is no
escort/parent/elder child.

I guess he could have me a 3 point turn.
Maybe he used to, at first.


There was no escort in the bus.

Ah well, give it a year or so..

Well, like them or not I think that it would have been better if there was
an escort on the day.

--
Sue


Sims

You're right - something's missing. About the only feasible scenario I
can come up with is that if the wife was driving a LHD car, in the UK -
or a RHD car in a LHD country, in which case why ask in a uk.legal
group...?

Or I simply got muddled up when typing the post.

The mirror is broken on the passenger side.

Sims

In message , at 16:50:07 on Fri, 19
Sep 2008, Simon remarked:
Do you always slow right down when you see a school bus stopped
anywhere?

In the USA it's compulsory for all vehicles to stop in the vicinity of a
stopped school bus. But the buses do also normally have "STOP!" signs
that they put out, as well as flashing lights.
--
Roland Perry

On 19 Sep, 19:20, "Simon" wrote:
As she overtook the bus a kid ran out from the front of the bus and hit
the
driver door, (broke a side mirror).
The wife stopped in front of the bus, the colleague got out of the car to
help, the wife stayed in the car with the baby, a bit shocked).

Are we missing something here? If, from the way you describe it, the
bus is on the left of the road with the kid getting out and running
round the front of the bus and across the road as your wife 'overtook'
ie passed the offside of the stationary bus, how would the child hit
the *driver* door and mirror? Or is that not what happened?

Sorry, you are quite right indeed.
The mirror is broken on the passenger side.
When I got home yesterday and typed that post I obviously wasn't thinking
properly.


Thanks.

Apart from the fact that, in retrospect, it would have been better for
your wife to have gone to the house and assessed the situation
personally and in a bit more detail, and left her own details, she did
at an early stage try to do that, and, as required, reported it to the
police. I can't see too many problems resulting from the action she
actually took, particularly on the initial information presented to
her by her colleague that the kid was okay.

Otherwise, she needs details of the witnesses and to report in full to
her insurers and to leave it with them. In her defence, it is somewhat
unusual nowadays, if a child is a user of a school bus, that they
should be unsupervised or untrained to the extent that they run out
from in front of the bus. That is *the* one thing that just should not
happen. The only question is, if the bus was marked as a school bus,
would be the degree of care your wife exercised, and her speed, when
passing it and whether that could have made any contribution to the
accident. If so, and serious enough, that could raise some question of
(contributory) civil negligence for injuries, and may largely depend
on what the witnesses saw. (Again, her insurers should be left to deal
with these issues, and any issues, should they arise, of e.g. careless
driving charges)

Whilst you wife is obviousy concerned about the child's injuries, in
any contact to enquire about the child with e.g. the mother she should
not discuss the circumstances of the accident or any issues of blame
or guilt - i.e say nothing that would prejudice her insurers position
(that will be a condition of her insurance cover). The ordinary punter
is usually unaware of the principles of negligence and may say things
which compromise the issues.

Toom

"Simon" wrote in
:


Yes, about 500 yards down the road from the accident.

That would be considered too far away to use.

True, maybe they should paint one by that particular stop.
This is unrelated, but if this was indeed a designated school drop
off zone they might as well have painted a crossing.


This is very likely, I don't know enough about this. But it does
not look like a designated stop to me.

It wouldn't. All it would look like is a suitable place to stop,
close to a house.

As I said, I don't know enough to say. You are probably right.


At that time of day - the only reason for a school bus being
there would be to drop off kid(s).

But yep, if I see a school bus beside the road I *expect* a child
to run out. That is why school buses have school bus boards....

What do you mean by school bus board?
For the record, this school bus is a small 'mini bus', (seats 12 I
think), and does not say 'school bus' on it.
But, for all intents and purposes it is a school bus.

I know it is not excuse, but the road is a fairly busy road, (one
of those small busy village road), with many cars doing 30, so you
expect the kids/drivers/parents to be more careful. It is not as
if the car came around the corner unexpected, in fact it is a
fairly long straight road.


Of course, many people habitually do inappropriate or thoughtless
things, like driving at 30mph in this situation. But I would in
this situation (which I meet daily) slow down to 15 or 20 mph if I
could leave at least 10 feet between me and the bus, and walking
pace if I could not. I would be looking under the bus as I
approached and I would not worry about delaying the traffic behind
me, or being late for work. I am fairly sure I could not then hit a
child however much it tried, as they regularly do.


--
Percy Picacity