Mini Bus Driver Convicted--The Last Chapter of the Story

T

thanka2

Registered User
This past April (2012), I was on a mini bus and the driver was driving recklessly. I posted about the details here.

Just wanted to update the story. Well, I had called the police and reported it. Around September they finally got around to bringing me in to take down my full statement with a translator present.

I was summonsed to court in January and testified against the bus driver--it was an entire day deal. The bus driver not only lied but lied horribly and copped a really nasty attitude with the judge. I got paid for my day in court as a witness--that was an interesting "perk" that I wasn't aware of initially. But, in reality, the reason why I was there was because that driver put the safety of my child (and myself as well as everyone else on the bus and road) at risk and was so full of himself that the "sterm warning" the police told me they would give him wouldn't do anything to him.

I just got a letter in the post today that read that the driver was convicted of the charges and was fined $3,000 HKD. He is still driving the bus but he has done an about face in his driving behavior (at least while I'm on the bus).

I just share this story to let you know that if you're willing to do your "civic duty" and report these awful bus and taxi drivers and then give testimony and go to court (which requires time, effort and some inconvenience) there is a possibility that they will either change or be taken off the road.
 
What exactly did the bus driver do? It's great that you insisted with your complaint.
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RileyC said:
What exactly did the bus driver do? It's great that you insisted with your complaint.
Posted via Mobile Device
Click to expand...

You can read about it in the link above that I linked back to. Basically, I got on the same mini-bus I ride almost every day. It is the only mini-bus that serves our village. Otherwise it's a 30-minute walk to the train station or a 15-minute walk to the main bus station. My daughter was about 4-weeks-old at the time. My mom and my step-dad were visiting from the States. We were meeting my mom and husband for dinner. I was with my step-dad. The bus driver had been driving recklessly on occasion in the past--my husband and I had been on the bus when in such a hurry (thinking he is a race car driver or something) he tried to switch lanes really fast to get around a vehicle in front of us but nearly ploughed the bus right into a construction site because the lane he was swerving into was closed for construction--there was heavy equipment set up on the road and we nearly crashed into it. On other occasions my husband (whose first language is Cantonese) had heard him commenting to the passengers about how, "Y'know, I'm one of the best bus drivers around. See, those other guys don't know anything...I am not only a safe driver but a very fast one!" And basically every time we'd been on the bus with this guy he was speeding. So, we were already a bit wary of riding with him but we have few other options for transport out of our village.

Anyway, that evening, it was around 6 pm and at first the trip was going pretty smoothly. Basically because traffic was so congested he had to keep with the flow of traffic. But, then he turned from one highway to another and hit a straight-away. He hit the accelator and topped out at 93 km/hour in a 50 km/hour zone on a highway that has had multiple fatal minibus accidents in the past two years--once killing several children on the bus right in front of the hospital that sits on that road. Not only was he speeding he was trying to swerve around other cars and pass them to "get in the lead." Doesn't make any sense at all because the stretch of highway is only like less than 1 km and ends in a stoplight that everyone has to stop at anyway. Not to mention there is still construction so the road isn't exactly in good shape.

Anyway, I had my newborn in my arms and as the accelator keeps going up I was getting nervous. Then it started beeping at 80 km and he just kept driving like it was nothing. Finally, as we were going under a overpass and he was swerving in and out of lanes I screamed, "SLOW DOWN!" He looked up like, "Huh? What was that noise!" (He's the type of bus driver who is wearing his "cool sunglasses" even after sunset because he's just "that cool"--it was after sunset and he still had his sunglasses on!) At that point the other Cantonese-speakers on the bus started screaming at him in Cantonese to slow down too. Some of the passengers even started apologizing to me for his driving! He finally slowed down a bit and then stopped at the stop light where everyone must stop anyway.

I was shaking. I asked my father-in-law what he thought and he said that it was definitely reckless and that I should call the police. I called right away and gave the license of the bus. The next time I got on the bus I took my camera with me and recorded him--he again sped up to 75-80 km/hour on the road that is marked 50 km/hour. I recorded him at least two other times doing the same thing. Unfortunately, because I didn't report those two following times as separate cases, the evidence did not apply to the case I did report. So, that's something to keep in mind if you are reporting someone who habitually drives recklessly--you need to call the police and file separate reports for each instance especially if you have evidence to file.

That's what happened.
 
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