Being hit by Disney Transportation

[callumlukey]

I recently go back from my holiday from the world and wanted to share this story and ask a question.

We were staying at OKW but had also got a rental car incase we wanted to dine off property. Well this particular evening we decided we wanted to go to Tony Romas.
As we come out of OKW and got to the first set of traffic lights we stopped with a Disney bus ahead of us. I then noticed the bus have its reverse lights on and I couldnt reverse as had a car behind me, so sure enough the bus reversed in to our car with a massive thud.
I wondered what the hell was the driver thinking! So i got out of the car to see the damage and the whole bumper and part of the hood was damaged. The bus then proceeded to go as the traffic lights turned green so I jumped back in the car and tried to flag him down as he obviously had not realised what he had done.

He eventually pulled in at Hollywood Studios and and then preceded to LIE to me! He said that at the traffic lights his bus rolled back when infact i saw his reverse lights on. I figured he said this to try and cover his mistake so he might not get in trouble. I stayed calm and was polite and said that its a rental car and I am not paying for the damage as it will be a ton of money for something I didn't do.

Anyway after this Disney security show up and we go through the whole thing again, then we have to wait for the transportation manager to arrive. Once he does we go through it again and the driver eventually changes his story to what i believe to have happened. The driver said he stopped at the traffic lights but was a bit far out from the line, so he proceded to reverse back over the line! I hope im not the only one in thinking that this was a ridiculous thing to do as he can't see out of his back window to see whats behind him. I just dont get what he was thinking!

After lots of paperwork being filled out, phone calls to alamo to explain what had happened another person showed up and took pictures of the damage to the car. By this time it had been 2 hours since the accident and was extremely hungry, so when we could leave we gave the restaurant a miss and went back to the resort for a quick bite to eat.

The next morning we went to Alamo and sorted everything out. It turned out fine in the end but was a pain in the butt to take time out of our day to do.

I thought Disney handled it very well with all the paperwork and they were very apologetic. The driver tho was hidden away on his bus in the dark the whole time.

I wondered what happens to the drivers in a situation like this? and has anything like this happened to anyone else?

 

[goofy4tink]

I'm glad it worked out for you..even after it taking several hours. I know my dd, who is just starting to drive and has completed her classroom drivers ed section would say 'Stay out of the no-zone'.....she is always singing this to me now.....seems they learn, in class, that there is a zone, to the rear and side, of both buses and trucks, where the driver can't see anything behind him. So, the kids are taught to stay out of that area.
Of course, that makes stopping behind them difficult....you would have to be way over to their side in order for them to see you in a rear view mirror or several car lengths behind them just in case they had to back up, or even rolled back.
But, how many people really do that??? Not many, I'm sure.

 

[bookwormde]

With as cheap as they have gotten hopefully WDW will ad the back up cameras on the buses (they are great as long as you understand their limitations)

bookwormde

 

[disney david]

Glad you guys wasn't hurt and thankfully you was able to follow him I guess his agreement was he didn't feel hitting you so he most not been in reverse. Did they offer to have the police come to fill out a report with them it sounds like yes since you had to fill out paper work. Well as long as it didn't ruin your whole trip or leave a bad taste in your mouth about Disney and you didn't have to pay any thing I guess it worked out for you.

 

[LilyWDW]

I'm glad it worked out for you..even after it taking several hours. I know my dd, who is just starting to drive and has completed her classroom drivers ed section would say 'Stay out of the no-zone'.....she is always singing this to me now.....seems they learn, in class, that there is a zone, to the rear and side, of both buses and trucks, where the driver can't see anything behind him. So, the kids are taught to stay out of that area.
Of course, that makes stopping behind them difficult....you would have to be way over to their side in order for them to see you in a rear view mirror or several car lengths behind them just in case they had to back up, or even rolled back.
But, how many people really do that??? Not many, I'm sure.

When stopped behind a vehicle one should be able to see from the bottom of the wheels to the top of the vehicle clearly. This should then give plenty of room for them to see you in their mirrors and plenty of room where you shouldn't hit them if someone hits you from behind.

Though no one ever does this... it's a trick my father (a retired police officer) taught me back in the day.

 

[sj24]

Shouldn't those busses have back up alarms? If they don't i am really suprised.

 

[callumlukey]

Glad you guys wasn't hurt and thankfully you was able to follow him I guess his agreement was he didn't feel hitting you so he most not been in reverse. Did they offer to have the police come to fill out a report with them it sounds like yes since you had to fill out paper work. Well as long as it didn't ruin your whole trip or leave a bad taste in your mouth about Disney and you didn't have to pay any thing I guess it worked out for you.

Yer the driver when asked if he felt anything said he thought it was his transmition kicking in or something! No the police were not involved but the waiting around was due to waiting on all these people that had to come out and look at the car. It didnt leave a bad taste in our mouths as we understand that stuff like this is bound to happen with all the foreign drivers about, but what made us laugh was it wasn't our fault!

 

[disney david]

Yer the driver when asked if he felt anything said he thought it was his transmition kicking in or something! No the police were not involved but the waiting around was due to waiting on all these people that had to come out and look at the car. It didnt leave a bad taste in our mouths as we understand that stuff like this is bound to happen with all the foreign drivers about, but what made us laugh was it wasn't our fault!

the transmition kicking in you should of told him to turn around and kick him so his brain will kick in. I wonder how many cars he hit thinking the transmition was kicking in. Well their no hills in disney so his excuse that the bus rolled backwards has total bull well all that matters that you wasn't hurt.

 

[sam_gordon]

Shouldn't those busses have back up alarms? If they don't i am really suprised.

How would that help? OP knew the bus was backing up, but couldn't back up himself because of a car behind him.

 

[AlexDurrani]

I see the same thing happen locally here in Houston with the Metro buses. A rule of thumb I have with buses are to give them about a car length space between you and them. If a car pulls in front of you its their problem and not yours. That is one of the reasons why they do not let people play radio boom boxes on the bus. No matter how slow the bus is going it will still cause a lot of damage to small cars.

 

[joelkfla]

I see the same thing happen locally here in Houston with the Metro buses. A rule of thumb I have with buses are to give them about a car length space between you and them. If a car pulls in front of you its their problem and not yours. That is one of the reasons why they do not let people play radio boom boxes on the bus. No matter how slow the bus is going it will still cause a lot of damage to small cars.

???

Because cars get closer to buses so the occupants can hear the boom boxes?

Because boom boxes cause bus drivers to back up?

 

[sj24]

How would that help? OP knew the bus was backing up, but couldn't back up himself because of a car behind him.

If the bus was equipped with an audible backup alarm the driver would have known that the transmission was in reverse and not drive due to the annoying "beep-beep-beep". These alarms are not only for the operator but for other nearby motorists and pedestrians.

 

[dburg30]

If the bus was equipped with an audible backup alarm the driver would have known that the transmission was in reverse and not drive due to the annoying "beep-beep-beep". These alarms are not only for the operator but for other nearby motorists and pedestrians.

It sounds like the bus driver knew he/she was in reverse... They just plain didnt see the car behind them.

 

[bumbershoot]

That's awful that it happened, but I'm glad your car was drivable and you were able to follow him! Glad disney is being helpful. I've never had a bus do that, but it's scary when a car starts to back up like that...time speeds up so much and just to get the hand on the horn sometimes feels impossible.

When stopped behind a vehicle one should be able to see from the bottom of the wheels to the top of the vehicle clearly.

Though no one ever does this... it's a trick my father (a retired police officer) taught me back in the day.

Seems like with a bus, even giving that much space might not have solved the problem, BUT I wanted to mention that that was the way I was taught in the extra driving lessons my mom paid for. Also described as "leave enough room for an elephant to get in between the cars".

 

[kaytieeldr]

When stopped behind a vehicle one should be able to see from the bottom of the wheels to the top of the vehicle clearly. This should then give plenty of room for them to see you in their mirrors and plenty of room where you shouldn't hit them if someone hits you from behind.

Though no one ever does this... it's a trick my father (a retired police officer) taught me back in the day.

Yeah, I was taught something similar - that if you can't see both side view mirrors, don't think the driver can see you! I used to work with tractor trailer drivers. Smart men (at the time; I'd hope the company has women drivers by now as well )

 

[skiingfast]

Yeah, I was taught something similar - that if you can't see both side view mirrors, don't think the driver can see you! I used to work with tractor trailer drivers. Smart men (at the time; I'd hope the company has women drivers by now as well )

I have similiar experience. Trucks need extra room around them as do buses. Not that the driver was in the right, but it is good to be a cautious driver no matter what vehicle you are in. Could of saved the OP a couple hours of hassles.

 

[joelkfla]

If the bus was equipped with an audible backup alarm the driver would have known that the transmission was in reverse and not drive due to the annoying "beep-beep-beep". These alarms are not only for the operator but for other nearby motorists and pedestrians.

Most of the time, the backup alarm is not audible to the driver. When the bus is checked in the morning, we need to open the window and listen very carefully to verify it's working.