Show us the exact corner in Google Maps, that will help determine how much was your fault.

Welcome to the "been in an accident" club" :D

No point stressing over something that's happened. Roll with the punches. It's not the end of the world. Most importantly, nobody got hurt. And I'm sure your parents will be forgiving since you weren't doing something stupid like trying to drag race the bus. :)

idiot translink decides to put bus stops at intersections where drivers are already occupied with the following: pedestrians, oncoming traffic, bikes.

idiot translink also likes to give bus drivers all the power they desire, which somehow makes bus drivers always 100% right, even though I rarely see any of them shoulder check.

Sorry man but unless the bus was running a definate red you will be 100% liable. So many times have I had close calls with busses whenever I am beside them, even if I am right beside the driver's window they just turn into me, so most of the time I say fuck it and either speed up or stay behind it.

some friend of mine works for an insurance company and once told me that buses do have the right of way..HOWEVER, if you were already at the front half of the bus or sth and they merge out and hit you, its their fault

JUST what i remember..better if you ask icbc ^^

Actually, I don't think it is your fault. He hit your quarter panel and rear- door. So, saying that it shows you were clearly IN FRONT already.

That bus has the right of way etc only applies if you are not in front of him. This sounds similar to a incident of a friend of mine who got hit while making a left. The other car hit her back end. It Ended up being the other persons fault as it was the back side. Clearly showing she was already in the intersection.

So, this might go for you as well.

Anyway good luck

Tough. It seems like this will be your fault.

You're making a really awkward lane merge and turn in, basically, the intersection. You should've waited behind the bus.

Like somebody stated before, post a googlemap link of the ally intersection

^ In for pics...

I definitely think you can go off something here as people have said that the damage is to the rear end of your car... which obviously would mean you're well in front of the bus... making the bus driver potentially liable for this...

Sorry that is a piss poor assumption.

It happened at 41st and vic
The alley and intersection is really awkard since the road is curvey, it was a 2 lane road excluding parking/curb lane, and yes the bus was about to pull into the right lane.

it is a tough call since my car was already turning right as the bus was pulling out (was already past the bus signal lights).

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...26.33,,0,15.46
as you can see, there is about 2m distance from the alleyway to the bus stop and at the time there was already a car waiting in the alleyway intersection.

what a fucking irony, i took the 41st bus home from work tonight.

If you can prove that you have already passed by the point that even when you stopped and yielded to the bus, the bus couldn't safely pull out.

Only when you could prove that point, you might get a 50/50..... :(

^ Ya, but doesn't matter, you should ALWAYS SHOULDER CHECK, yes I just got my class 5 today so I know. Why is it important?? Because if you shoulder check, you would see the bus signaling to go out. If you see that, you should've just stay at where you are, yield for the bus to come out first then turn. In normal cases, you *might* argue 50-50 but because you still turn from the outside into the vehicle, it is half your fault. With Translink, all I can say is, Good Luck fighting!

^ 50/50 is the same thing as saying he's 100% at fault though. Both parties insurance goes up.

But is he point more or less that as he was approaching the alley the bus had yet to signal he was pulling out? I agree with you in terms of the well its translink goodluck buddy, but at the same time... when you see buses stopped to pickup/dropoff passengers everyone around the bus doesn't suddenly stop until it starts moving again and pulls back onto the road... I think the bus driver probably didn't notice you were beside him until it was too late..

shit

that alley way is a death trap so amny accident there.

this is a toss up if you really wanna know who is in the wrong however the fact that its was an accidnet with a bus makes it very hard to prove you were at fault.

where you gonig to Kent's Kitchen? I love their tofu there soo good. Sorry when I saw the map it was the 1st thing that came to mind

I completely understand how you feel :cry:

I also had a near-miss a while back. I was pulling out from the alley, while a Dodge minivan was turning in from 41st. That place is just too narrow..

That alleyway needs improvements.

It is especially hard to turn into the plaza when there is a bus at that bus stop and you just turned left onto 41st from Vic Drive.

It's not your fault.

Well, actually, it depends who you ask.

In the eyes of the law, one could argue it's legally your fault since you failed to yield to a bus pulling out. But you could argue by saying the bus pulled out when it wasn't clear. It's not an open and shut case. This would be for a judge to decide.

BUT in the eyes of ICBC it's not your fault. The collision occurred because the bus driver pulled out into traffic when it wasn't safe to do so. This isn't that complicated.

I'm not sure, but I would bet that Translink doesn't insure their vehicles with ICBC. So that means it will take a while for your claim to be settled, while ICBC negotiates fault with Translink civil lawyers. ICBC may try and avoid doing this because the dollars aren't significant and there was no damage to the bus. You might have to fight them for this otherwise you'll get stuck with the bill for the damage to your car.

Good luck.

Sorry bout the assumption. I just figured from the genral demo of rs members.
But with your case, if the bus was going straight...and you left your lane....accidents are usually your fault.
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I don't think there is a "curb lane", just left and right. You and the bus were both in the right lane. Should have moved quicker if you wanted to pass the bus and cut in front of him to make your turn.

I think this will be your fault, but let us know how it goes.

When I first read the thread and saw your diagram, I thought you would be 100% at fault.

But after you clarified, you might actually be able to better your odds. Though it will not likely be 100% his fault but you can at the very least get some percentage of it back. You'll need to prove that you were already in position (so like witnesses) and how the bus failed to safely go into an open lane. You basically need to prove that you were occupying that lane and was already about to make a turn so it was basically him hitting you without checking.

It is going to be a tough situation. You should call your witnesses to ask them what they saw so that you can get a better picture of what happened.

If you were already occupying the lane, I think your odds are pretty good. But if you were cutting it, you're going to be hooped.

in normal circumstances this makes sense but this alley way is like >90 degrees since the road is curved. I could honestly say i was probably 5-8km/h when the impact occured.

could mods move this back into VOT for the next day or 2..i'm trying to get as much traffic on opinions

So you were passing a bus that was stopped to pull into that alley way? That was a really poor driving decision. In fact it is extra dangerous, what if a kid got off the bus and started walking across the alley street? Or in front of the bus at all?

Chalk this one up to lesson learned. The expense of fixing your dad's car and maybe him kicking your ass is nothing compared to how bad this could have turned out.

sorry.

you'll get lots of hits here too.

Ok I'm not sure if you live around there, I do, and I go through that alley weekly or twice weekly. My experience is that the front of the bus stops right at where the lightpole is, or VERY close to it. No one tries or dares to drive into that alley at anything over 5-10kmh because there are always big vans coming out of that alley or police cars parked in the alley. Besides, the only way you would be going at a faster speed turning into that alley would be coming from 41st westbound with little traffic, and you would most likely slow down anyways because that bus is there quite often and is usually an articulated bus that takes up half the block.

Anyway my point is:

a) if you drive like a normal person in that area, you would've probably stopped beside the bus, looked to see its clear, then turn in, or maybe you've turned a little so that your car is already in front of the bus, while the bus is not moving, and then the bus moves and hits your car. If thats the case, its probably not your fault.


b) If you stopped beside the bus and it started moving, you're already beside him so if he forced his way out, you would've lost your front passenger side of the car. He hit you, so its not your fault. but this didnt happen.

c) if the bus is already signalling and you're being a jackass by not letting him out, and he smokes you, it should still be bus's fault because, yes you didnt yield, but bus driver has responsiblity to turn out when its CLEAR TO DO SO.

d) if you see the bus moving forward and you tried to beat it by turning faster, you're just an idiot. but because its such a tight area i'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you didnt do this.

if you think you didnt do anything wrong, make sure you're damn confident about it and tell icbc what happened. it would also be nice to take some pictures in that area, especially when a bus is there.

picture kinda shows op is still trying to merge into the right lane..therefore op would be at fault cos that means he's not fully ahead. If he was fully ahead and into the right lane and the bus hits the OP's bumper then it would be bus' fault. Your theory would mean that if I got my car 3 quarters of the way ahead of you and merged into your lane and your car hit my rear door and quarter panel you'd be at fault which doesnt make sense.

Besides, bus could always argue he had already signalled out of the bus stop and was going straight, hence the reason why the signals were not on when the accident happened. How far the bus was away from the bus stop when he hit the OP's car could be a factor in determining who is at fault if the OP were to argue the signalling thing.

C is the closest description of the scenario in your list, but i never intentionally trying to cut the bus off from merging, as i was coasting up to the alleyway i didn't see any signalling or the bus moving.

Being my first accident i think i handled it okay, just shitty luck. However, the biggest mistake here is that I didn't take the picture of the actual impact positions, i moved the car outta the way first then shot the individual damage pictures. So next time instead of worrying about holding up the traffic up on 41st, i really should've just taken 20 seconds to put hazards on, step out and take a photo, especially if the other party is a subsidary of the government.

The only convincing proof i have is a picture of the bus slanted outwards.

edit: also wouldn't icbc look at the individual damage to assess/confirm stories? or is that only for severe cases?