SHOCKING video shows a bus driver come within inches of mowing down a man using a walking stick to cross the road.
The pedestrian lashes out at the bus with his stick as it passes close to him in Liverpool.
The driver of the bus, rather than slowing down or stopping, swerved around the pedestrian in the city’s Smithdown Road.
Airport transfer driver Kenny Scantz from Liverpool caught the incident on his dashcam and uploaded it to social media on Monday.
He posted to a closed Facebook group saying: “This guy was almost a goner.”
Kenny, 50, said the bus was a 699 service operated by Arriva.
The video shows Kenny driving behind a double decked bus through the busy Liverpool street.
The double decker bus then brakes repeatedly and overtakes a man wearing a blue coat trying to cross the road with his walking stick.
The man is seen struggling to cross the road, and then lashes out towards the bus trying to hit it with his walking stick.
The video has sparked debate in the comments as to whether the bus driver was at fault or the pedestrian.
One commenter said: “Bus swerved to avoid him, but in my opinion should have just slowed down to give the pedestrian (clearly struggling to walk at any pace) the chance to get across the road.”
A second commenter added: “Bus driver should have stopped and given the pedestrian a safe route to cross.”
A third commenter wrote: “Bus shouldn’t of been going that fast. Plenty of straight to see the hazard and adjust accordingly.”
However, some feel the pedestrian was at fault.
One commenter said: “Cannot fault the bus driver. Touched his brakes, undoubtedly checking mirror, then seeing he had room he chose not to brake hard upsetting the passengers but to go round. Nothing dangerous.”
A second commenter added: “The pedestrian could have used the crossing further up that he probably passed.”
Kenny today said that he felt the bus driver could have done better, but also acknowledges he has to look after his own passengers.
“In situations like that any sane person would slow down or stop to let the guy cross.
“I get the guy should cross in the appropriate places like pedestrian crossings, but we all cross the road where we can.
“I don’t blame him to be honest. His life probably flashed before his eyes. I know mine would.
“The way he lashed in my opinion is acceptable. It’s just an instinctive reaction.”
A survey conducted by insurance company Tempcover revealed Arriva, along with First, received more Twitter complaints about their service than any other bus operator in the UK.
The national survey found 61% of tweets about Arriva to be negative from 53,096 responses.
In the North West region almost half of all the 17,127 Arriva tweets were found to be categorised as ‘angry.’
