LUCKY ESCAPE IN BUS ACCIDENT

An elderly man escaped with minor injuries after colliding with a Stagecoach bus on Falkland Road in Torquay yesterday. The 78-year-old local man was taken to Torbay Hospital for a check-up after the accident just off Avenue Road just before midday.

The 32 H bus was heading down Falkland Road towards Kings Drive when it was in collision with the pensioner.Insp Glen Mayhew said from the scene: "There was a collision between a bus doing its normal route and an elderly pedestrian at approximately 11.45am. Early indications are his injuries are not too serious. We expect him to be discharged soon."Subsequent inquiries revealed that man had suffered minor cuts only.

The above is taken from an item in the local paper, The Herald Express.

A collision between a pedestrian and a bus is one of those things that all bus drivers dread. I don't mean we wake up in the morning worrying if to day will be the day and need to take a few pills to calm our nerves down enough so we can go to work; but when the news came out over the radio the first thought was 'I wonder if the pedestrian is OK' followed at once by the same question about the driver.

I have been in this position of hitting a pedestrian, not while driving a bus but a taxi. Ask me what I did last Thursday and I would have to think about it quite hard but I can still remember every detail from the moment I realized I was going to hit some one to the time I had stopped and got out of the taxi and this was 39 years ago.

Following the advice about falling of a horse I drove the taxi the next day and our driver did the same thing. He was in work to day which I believe is the best thing for him to do.

I also hope the pedestrian is up and about some and puts the Green Cross Code on his must read list.