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A school bus “bumped” a bicyclist this morning in Palo Alto, but the bicyclist was apparently uninjured. The collision occurred at 7:41 a.m. at Bryant Street and El Dorado Avenue.
The bicyclist was identified as a teacher in a Palo Alto school.
“It was kind of a bump,” said Palo Alto Fire Department Battalion Chief Ron Bonfiglio. “It turned out to be nothing.”
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the collision, according to Palo Alto police and fire dispatch.
By Don Kazak
By Don Kazak
By Don Kazak
This is just the sort of accident that should not happen and what we are afraid may happen all the time. Fortunately, the cyclist was an adult (a teacher no less) who was not hurt. A smaller cyclist, e.g. a child, may not have been so fortunate.
School buses are big and it is hard for a driver to see cyclists all around the bus, cyclists are not careful enough and do not realise that they can’t be seen.
It is time that cyclists in particular realised that just because Bryant Blvd. is called a cycle route, that it is not the place to throw caution to the wind. They must still be careful, particularly with big vehicles with limited visibility.
I expect the general furore will be to blame the bus driver. I feel sure that although there was probably fault on both sides, it is easier for a cyclist to see a big yellow bus, than it is for a large vehicle driver to see a lone cyclist.
It all boils down to being alive to tell the tale even if you have the right of way, rather than being dead and in the right.
I suggest that the school district invest in putting one of those fancy electronic type beepers like they now have on the brand new Lexus cars……….(AMAZING … they can even parallel park automatically….!)
The car manufactures have different types of warning systems that could be used on those huge buses and it could actually save a life, not to mention lawsuits…well worth the investment, PAUSD…think about it……………………..Thanks.