In a breath-taking piece of irresponsible driving a driver for London tourist bus operator Golden Tours has been caught on camera deliberately driving on a pavement in order to block two cyclists whom he felt the need to tell off.
According to the comments on his original YouTube posting, cyclist Ali Choudhry (19) from Ilford, was riding through London with a friend on August 2 when they noticed they were being tailgated by a Golden Tours bus.
“This driver decided to spice things up a bit for us with a blend of typical road rage," said Choudhry. "He tailgated us at literally 3 feet and got angry for being held up for a few seconds but had all the time in the world to stop and vent his fury.”
Choudhry and his friend, who was riding through London for the first time, took refuge on the pavement, but as you can see in the video, the driver also turned off the road to block their path.
He opens the bus doors and begins to shout at the riders until Choudhry points out his video camera.
“I bet he intended to do a lot more but backed off when he saw the camera and the fact i wasn't alone," said Choudhry.
Asked if he had notified the driver's employer, he replies: "Yup. Have already sent them the video link via contact us on their website. I hope they do sort it out as best as they can. The driver really needs to control his irrational anger and what he does as a result of it."
In response to the video being drawn to the company's attention on Twitter, Golden Tours said he was no longer working there:
@DrMoroch0 Hi, thanks for your tweet. The driver in question no longer works for Golden Tours.
— Golden Tours (@GoldenTours) August 15, 2014
48 thoughts on “Video: Tourist bus driver mounts kerb to admonish cyclists”
The question is why has the
The question is why has the video not been passed to the police so that he can be charged?
The bus is an open top London
The bus is an open top London Tour vehicle – the name & address of the operator are in that white lettering on the left side by the front wheel – It is a bit tricky to read but it does not say Golden Tours – is this the holding company or a contractor providing the buses?
Well it would be poetic that as you have a clear picture of the driver, and caught him in flagrante delicto committing an offence under s.72 Highways Act 1835 there should be at least enough to send him a fixed penalty notice just like cyclists get for riding or driving a carriage on the footway. I think he’ll also be liable for charges under s.19 RTA 1988 as his bus weighs over 7.5T and is being driven on a footway
Hopefully a knock from the
Hopefully a knock from the Police won’t be far behind his P45.
Well OK Golden Tours aren’t
Well OK Golden Tours aren’t using him but he’s still out there and they haven’t divulged who he is.
Golden Tours need to do more than just move him along on to another employer that may well not know about any of this. How could they know?
This is a police matter.
Really hope the Met has this
Really hope the Met has this as well?
And at the end the driver is
And at the end the driver is actually bringing up the highway code! Unbelievable.
Good job they had a camera,
Good job they had a camera, otherwise the complaint would most likely be ignored, even if the company had the option to check the cameras on the bus.
Binky wrote:Good job they had
Binky. I don’t follow that. The company probably don’t want their customers (tourists) being treated to a road rage incident by one of their drivers driving on the pavement. Plus this is a liveried vehicle so it brings the company into disrepute anyway. Then there’s the issue of how their asset is being treated anyway not to mention the loss of business if he damages the bus and it needs to be repaired and that’s without the insurance implications.
If I were his employer I wouldn’t want him putting up my insurance, damaging company property, frightening customers and destroying the company’s good name. Let alone the issue of the fact that he has anger issue and wondering what the hell he is going to do next. Why would you think they’d want to keep someone like that? Most companies spend a lot of money making sure they don’t employ people like that and are all too keen to get rid of people that are a risk to their business.
You should see the frothing
You should see the frothing at the mouth over on the daily fail this is causing, makes me chuckle. As for the incident, nothing less than I expect from a London bus driver
Scrapples wrote:You should
I always go straight for the “best rated” comments, never fails to make me smile.
So the top three are –
“Idiotic, self entitled cyclists are becoming an increasing menace! I don’t blame the driver at all, it clearly isn’t as straightforward as the whingeing cyclists have made out!” – 2681 up, 826 down votes
“My sympathies are with the bus driver. The overwhelming majority of cyclists ignore the Highway Code especially those referring to traffic lights.” – 2107 up, 490 down votes
And my personal favourite in third – “Ban cyclists” – 1537 up, 660 down votes
The Daily Mail was best summed up by an American I shared a flight with a few year ago. She’d collected a complimentary copy whilst boarding the plane, and after reading a few pages she decided to introduce herself to her fellow passenger (me) by asking “excuse me, is this paper a fucking joke or is it for real?”
That driver is clearly a
That driver is clearly a professional, just like his wife…………
You have to wonder why people
You have to wonder why people with so little control over their emotions are allowed to drive a psv . Quite clearly the bus drivers charges were not at the forefront of his mind nor was the rest of the traffic.
What a twunt! Throw the book
What a twunt! Throw the book at him.
The bus drive immediately
The bus drive immediately realise that the cyclist has a camera so decide to retreat. What would of happened if the cyclist didn’t have a camera ??
You have to wonder why people
You have to wonder why people with so little control over their emotions are allowed.
As with most of these, I want
As with most of these, I want to see the previous few minutes of footage rather than take it at face value with edit choices of the supposedly aggrieved cyclists.
The bus driver is clearly upset by something in the behaviour of the cyclists but nothing they do during the video seems too bad. One of them pulling out to hog the lane while his friend undertakes is not particularly good behaviour. But both of them laughing at having held up the bus is good evidence that they are pleased with themselves for having obstructed him, until they realise he is going to react and suddenly it isn’t so funny.
So what else were they up to in the couple of minutes previous?
kevinmorice wrote:As with
What a daft comment.
FluffyKittenofTindalos
What a daft comment.— kevinmorice
Not really. To quote Baruch Spinoza “No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.”
Joeinpoole
What a daft comment.— FluffyKittenofTindalos
Not really. To quote Baruch Spinoza “No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.”— kevinmorice
So what actions by the cyclist makes it legal to drive a bus onto the pavement?
FluffyKittenofTindalos
What a daft comment.— Joeinpoole
Not really. To quote Baruch Spinoza “No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.”— FluffyKittenofTindalos
So what actions by the cyclist makes it legal to drive a bus onto the pavement?— kevinmorice
Obviously nothing made that reaction either ‘legal’ or justified … and a man has lost his job as a result.
I just wonder what caused that reaction? It must have been something. If the driver suffered road-rage all the time over trivial matters then he probably wouldn’t have got the job in the first place. Maybe he wasn’t deliberately tailgating the cyclists … maybe the cyclists deliberately slowed down to obstruct him as much as possible for their own amusement? Who knows? The driver certainly felt that he had been wronged by the cyclists somehow and the video doesn’t show what it was.
Joeinpoole wrote:If the
Really? I see road rage and twatty driving from ‘professional’ drivers on a daily basis.
Joeinpoole wrote:Maybe he
Someone without a serious anger management issue / other personality problems would just think they’re being c*nts and swear under their breath while slowing down.
Seriously, can you please engage your cognitive faculties to filter out this sort of stuff before applying fingers to keyboard?
jacknorell wrote:
Someone
Like I and others have said, we don’t actually *know* what happened immediately before the incident.
You might want to take your own advice before applying fingers to keyboard next time.
Joeinpoole wrote:jacknorell
Like I and others have said, we don’t actually *know* what happened immediately before the incident.
You might want to take your own advice before applying fingers to keyboard next time.— jacknorell
Aren’t you getting tired of concocting imaginary reasons for reckless and dangerous drivers to be blameless?
jacknorell wrote:Joeinpoole
Like I and others have said, we don’t actually *know* what happened immediately before the incident.
You might want to take your own advice before applying fingers to keyboard next time.— Joeinpoole
Aren’t you getting tired of concocting imaginary reasons for reckless and dangerous drivers to be blameless?— jacknorell
I haven’t ‘concocted’ any imaginary reasons … unlike your good self. I’ve just tried to keep an open mind until we know both sides of the story. I’d have thought *that* was the civilised and intelligent thing to do.
But you are welcome to go ahead and spout your one-eyed prejudices with half the information missing.
Joeinpoole wrote:jacknorell
Like I and others have said, we don’t actually *know* what happened immediately before the incident.
You might want to take your own advice before applying fingers to keyboard next time.— jacknorell
Aren’t you getting tired of concocting imaginary reasons for reckless and dangerous drivers to be blameless?— Joeinpoole
I haven’t ‘concocted’ any imaginary reasons … unlike your good self. I’ve just tried to keep an open mind until we know both sides of the story. I’d have thought *that* was the civilised and intelligent thing to do.
But you are welcome to go ahead and spout your one-eyed prejudices with half the information missing.— jacknorell
Yes, you are concocting imaginary reasons. If we can’t know what happened beforehand, which we can’t, there is no point discussing it. Not that there is anyway unless your aim is to excuse the bus driver.
So the only explanation for you bringing it up is that you want to excuse the bus driver, you’re just too cowardly to say so. See: JAQing off.
And yes, it’s entirely possible a bus driver is that angry and stupid as to respond to the riding we see with the driving we see. Which is very stupid indeed under any circumstance imaginable.
Joeinpoole wrote: a man has
Why do you have to say “a man”? Is this some sort of weird think-of-the-children thing applied to privileged members of society who are ripe for going to jail?
Speechless…. really…
FluffyKittenofTindalos
Anything at all really. I take it you have not read the Highway Code and the Secret Rulebook for Drivers that Joeinpool keeps tucked up his keister?
FluffyKittenofTindalos
More to the point, why isn’t this criminal in jail?
Joeinpoole
What a daft comment.— FluffyKittenofTindalos
Not really. To quote Baruch Spinoza “No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.”— kevinmorice
So what actions by the cyclist makes it legal to drive a bus onto the pavement?
kevinmorice wrote:
So what
Ooooh, yes. I see where you’re coming from. Obviously whatever they were doing it justified the bus driver mounting the pavement. Good one.
If a cyclist can be fined for
If a cyclist can be fined for straying over the dividing line on a segregated pavement (as in the New Kent Road case) surely the bus driver should be fined for this?
@Joeinpoole
I was
@Joeinpoole
I was unncessarily dismissive/rude with my first comment, now I think about it. Sorry.
Perhaps the cyclists did do something wrong as well, I have no idea, but I’m not looking at it in terms of a confrontation between cyclist and driver, I am just fed up in general of drivers thinking they can drive onto the pavement. That’s wrong on its own, regardless of what went on between driver and cyclists.
FluffyKittenofTindalos
No worries … thanks! I’m confident we’re both batting for the same side on this issue anyway.
What a c**t.
He should be
What a c**t.
He should be charged with dangerous driving and be banned from driving any PSV for life.
got angry for being held up
Typical, had this a few time myself.
These morons don’t notice 20 single occupant motor vehicles stopped in front of them, but 1 cyclist ahead sends them into a rage.
kie7077 wrote:
got angry for
Will, it’s easy to understand why he was frothing at the mouth so much: there was two of them!
Granted, the cyclists could
Granted, the cyclists could have wound up the driver and the footage does not show this. Does not excuse the driver from mounting the footpath? He is after all a highly trained and skilled vehicle operator who can cope with all situations thrown at him rather than use his vehicle to intimidate other road users.
I once had a bus driver roll up to my wheel by about a foot while waiting at a set of lights. I moved off and had him tailgating me for about twenty metres as I fought to hold primary and get past some parked cars, he then performed an illegal overtake and whipped his vehicle in causing the rear of the bus brush my arm and forcing me into the side of a parked car. Catching up with him at the bus stop he said that he had given me plenty of room etc etc and that I was a danger to myself. On reporting, The CTV proved his stunt rather differently. I know that the individual concerned was dealt with as the company’s drivers have shown a huge improvement in interacting with cyclists.
It does seem concerning that a lot of bus and coach operators are quite happy to employ individuals that can’t cope with driving on heavily congested roads. Maybe a psyc test as well as an interview would be a way forward. Anger Management Issues = No Post.
Few very simple questions.
Few very simple questions.
What are the police doing about it?
Have DVLA confirmed removal of bus category from licence, if not why not or do they condone bus drivers doing this?
Note added to his personal insurance records – this guy is surely high risk?
Stunned as ever.
This backs up my idea of
This backs up my idea of getting a helmet cam. These idiots need identifying
Oh the irony…
…mounting
Oh the irony…
…mounting the kerb, driving along on the pavement, and using your vehicle as a roadblock in order to delivery an angry tirade about the Highway Code.
Nobber.
Wow.. you guys really are so
Wow.. you guys really are so blinkered… why is there not footage from before the ‘money shot’? I think we all know why really.
There was nothing in the video that could give anyone, even the most nutty of angry bus drivers reason to act in a way that they would surely know would lose them there job… so for me, I am comfortable there was two sides to this.
Does it justify the actions of the bus driver, hell no, but lets not take that holier than though attitude, it makes cyclists look like hypocritical chumps.
As for the comment about the driver being in jail… seriously? The driver got his just deserts, no one was harmed, no one was in danger of being harmed, it was just an angry twit being an angry… but controlled angry twit.
I will say, whilst it is easy to say ‘no actions could justify the driver reaction’, is that really the case? I’m not so sure… I’m sure there are circumstances that for all of us would cause us toact beyond the law… I’m being an argumentative dick make no mistake, but what if those guys had spent the previous five minutes shouting racist abuse at the driver… or similar… at what point does one persons actions not cause a representative reaction?
However, based on the evidence all we know is that the driver was a dick… I’m just not so keen to act as the executioner without all the background.
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:but what
I can’t be 100% in this case but I’m pretty damn sure that if you start racially abusing someone, even for one minute as opposed to five, the recipient isn’t going to come out attempting to reference the highway code.
farrell wrote:Jimmy Ray Will
Well… don’t use watching the video with sound on to ruin a perfectly irrational argument… where’s the fun in that?
My point is that we don’t know all the facts, so whilst I am perfectly comfortable condemning the bus drivers actions, I am not quite willing to pick up a pitch fork and start chasing anyone down the street quite yet.
A comment above talks about what would we think if a cyclist stopped in front of a car and started being abusive to the driver… My natural reaction would be to wonder what the reason for that cyclists to react in such a way… I’d still condemn it, but I’d understand that much like a bus driver, people don’t tend to really lose the plot without a little provocation.
You would have thought a
You would have thought a pretty simple case of dangerous driving, threats and intimidation by a bus driver with pretty clear evidence toward a couple of cyclists would receive universal condemnation from pretty much all cyclists, but no some trolls on here have still turned this comments section into a pathetic squabble amongst themselves. Unbelievable.
What you’ve got to understand
What you’ve got to understand here, right, is that if the speed of the bus drops below 50 mph… 😉
So many idiots here
So many idiots here commenting in favor of the bus driver? What if we turn the situation around and say the cyclist stopped in front of a bus and verbally abused the driver.
No-one with an attitude and/or anger management issues should be allowed to cycle or to drive any kind of vehicle (definitely shouldn’t be allowed to work as a driver), as eventually its not the actual circumstances but a tendency to road-rage that will lead to this kind of reaction.
To those asking what did the cyclist do? Well I’m sure in the past history of both the cyclist and the driver more dangerous events occurred and none of them lead to this kind of confrontation. The assumption that there must have been a horrible breach of highway code is just ridiculous.
Jimmy Ray Will ‘… people
Jimmy Ray Will ‘… people don’t tend to really lose the plot without a little provocation. ‘ <- are you being serious? Did you ever see other road-rage vids? It could have been, just maybe, that the driver has been provoked by somebody else, or sick of traffic while being in a hurry, or even holding a grudge against cyclist because of a past incident not involving these 2 guys here. There was an article here: http://road.cc/content/news/121958-judge-sends-clear-message-norfolk-man-jailed-10-months-causing-gbh-cyclist
Besides, don’t you think that somebody with a personality trait such as ‘lose the plot with a little provocation’ should not be qualified to, amongst others, being a driver?