Thursday 28 December 2006

Bus Shelter (Conclusion)


You may have read a post from the end of November in which I mention that I had scraped a bus shelter in Long Rd. The picture here is the damage done to the bus. Click here to see the bus shelter. When I did it I got on the radio and told control what had happened, telling them that some damage had occurred. The next driver along got on the radio and told control that some one had wrecked the shelter. His description turned out to be more accurate than mine.

Any way when you do something like this you get a little letter from the Depot Manager asking you to explain what happened. He has a little think about it and then calls you into his office and carefully and politely and very, very firmly explains in words with lots of syllables that hitting another bus shelter would not be a very good career move. To back this statement up he showed me the bill for the shelter and I would like to say here and now I am glad he didn't present me with the bill as it came to just short of £6000 plus VAT. (VAT is 17.5% in case you didn't know) So if you are waiting for a bus and it arrived and stops 5 feet out in the road you know it is me, staying away well from bus shelters for the time being.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had a shelter that stuck out into the road. I found this out when I pulled up close to the curb to allow an elderly passenger to board without undue effort....CRASH!!! Off flew the mirror and mirror arm. The next day, I noticed that the shelter had been hit more than once, in fact, more than a few times. That's when I realized that the roof stuck out about six inches into the street. I was charged with breaking the mirror, and appealed the charges. When I brought up the fact that the shelter was built out into the street, the safety director told me that she knew about the problem. I asked her how many other drivers had hit the shelter and she declined to answer. The shelter was finally moved back, but not until it had been hit a few more times. No attempt was ever made to alert drivers to the problem, and all of us who hit the shelter have the "accident" on our records.

Unless you went off the road, I'd be curious to know how you could be held 100% reponsible for your accident. Were you warned about the shelter?

Plymothian said...

I suppose at least they didn't want you to pay for the damage!

David said...

Well I knew the shelter was there and it did not over hang into the road. In an attempt to get close to the curb I let the front of the bus go over th curb (not the wheels)and hit the damn thing.

I am glad they didn't make me pay for it thought there are those who think that would be a nice idea.

Anonymous said...

I hear the council are putting a sign up on the new shelter saying this new shelter was donated by stagecoach and driver banx.

Anonymous said...

I heard they were putting up round blue placques on all the bus shelters in the south west commemorating "visits" from celebrated or well-known bloggers...

Anonymous said...

ooooh sandy....do you remember Julian?