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Old January 5th 12, 02:25 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Simon Mason[_4_]
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Posts: 9,242
Default Road rage bus driver faces jail for swerving in to cyclist

This has happened to me three times in the last week.
It is a good job my glasses are in dry dock, otherwise the drivers
would find themselves in another type of dock altogether.

QUOTE:
A bus driver was yesterday warned by a judge in Bristol that he faced
jail following a road rage incident in which he purposefully swerved
in to a cyclist breaking his leg, wrist and thumb and crushing his
bicycle under the wheels of the bus.

The driver of the bus, Gavin Hill from Frome in Somerset was arrested
by police at the scene of the incident which took place in the centre
of Bristol outside the city's Magistrate's Court in April last year.
Hill was immediately sacked by his employer Bugler Coaches which
operated the single decker bus.

Bristol Crown Court was told that cyclist, Phillip Mead spent two
weeks in hospital as a result of the injuries caused by Hill's
driving, and he also required a further operation to repair his left
knee.

The incident developed following a disagreement between the two men at
the James Barton roundabout, shortly afterwards the bus driver over-
took Mr Mead and swerved across him hitting his shoulder and hurling
him across the road.

Yesterday at a pre-sentence hearing at Bristol Crown Court the
presiding judge Recorder Frank Abbot said:

“My understanding is he drove his bus in the direction of the bicycle
after, at worst, losing his cool. He drove in his direction to
frighten him or show him whose boss but caused much more damage.”

Hill pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing grievous bodily
harm and dangerous driving at an earlier hearing but Recorder Abbot
warned him that:

“It must not be thought that this is not a serious matter.

“You drove in a way that was patently dangerous and in my view you did
it out of spite towards the cyclist with catastrophic results.

“He could have been killed and you would have been facing a much more
serious offence.

“However causing someone grievous bodily harm is a very serious matter
and the most likely sentence is a custodial one and you must realise
that is what will be at the forefront of the sentencing judges’ mind.”

Speaking about the incident Gerard Creed, managing directpr of Bugler
Coaches told the This is Bath website:

“We were deeply shocked when we heard of this incident and once we had
established what had happened Mr Hill was immediately dismissed as we
did not want him driving one of our buses ever again.”
He added: “We are proud of all our drivers who are extremely
professional and highly vigilant of the safety of passengers,
pedestrians and cyclists.

“We can assure all passengers that this was an isolated incident by a
driver that badly let down our company.
“As a cyclist myself I am very aware that some drivers of large
vehicles, both buses and lorries, treat cyclists as a nuisance as
indeed do some car drivers.”

While differences of opinion between bus drivers and cyclists on
crowded city streets are not uncommon and are sometimes heated
incidents of road rage resulting in violence or injury involving buses
are rare enough to be newsworthy - last year a Manchester bus driver
was convicted of assaulting a cycling pensioner. Many bus operators do
now have some sort of cyclist awareness training for their drivers
although the issue of buses passing too close when over-taking is
still something that concerns many cyclists.

Mr Hill was given bail after yesterday's hearing and will be sentenced
later this month.

http://road.cc/content/news/49880-ro...erving-cyclist

--
Simon Mason
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