Monday, June 17, 2013
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UTHE UBYSSEY

Young boy on bike hit by TransLink bus on Wesbrook Mall

By: November 7, 2012, 7:09pm PDT

A police officer carries a bicycle belonging to a young boy hit by a TransLink bus Wednesday. Photo Kai Jacobson/Ubyssey

A ten-year-old boy riding his bike was hit by a TransLink bus Wednesday evening. The boy sustained injuries and was taken to B.C. Children’s Hospital, but he has since been released.

The accident occurred around 6 p.m. on Wesbrook Mall, just east of University Boulevard.

Cpl. Robert Ploughman of the UBC RCMP detachment said that the boy only sustained minor injuries in the accident.

Ploughman said the bus driver failed to stop at a red light and has been issued a traffic violation ticket.

UBC education student Tanya Terbasket was standing beside the scene of the accident. She said the boy was riding a BMX bike and accompanied by a friend.

“The bus hit this little boy on the side, and he flew, I would say, three or four feet,” she said. “The bike flew onto the curb, and he flew off of his bike.… The bus hit him.

“[Paramedics] were worried because he was not conscious at first, and then he started crying after. He’s in an ambulance right now, and hopefully he will be okay,” said Terbasket.

Another UBC student, Claudia Popa, said she was riding the #480 bus that hit the boy. “I just heard a loud noise,” said Popa, “and he hit the kid, and the kid flew off his bike and was unconscious for awhile until someone got him conscious.”

TransLink spokesperson Drew Snider has acknowledged that the crash occurred, but has not yet provided any additional information about what TransLink’s response to the incident will be.

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  • anon

    I hope the bus driver gets charged. Drivers at the UBC bus loop just speed through towards students crossing or walking in the area because they know the students will eventually run out of the way

  • Witness

    The boy was probably closer to ten, and the bus ran a red light at University, hitting the boy in the crosswalk with a green walk signal. Thank you so much to the doctor who was on the scene and able to help, and all of the others that came to the boy’s aid so quickly.

  • anon

    Actually, I see idiots crossing the street looking down only at their phone taking their sweet time expecting all drivers to take caution to their otherwise haughty idiocy. We don’t know the facts here yet, maybe it was the driver’s fault, maybe it was the boy’s. Pedestrians here are on their high, high horses.

    • NotADriver

      take it easy, its just a young boy not a teenager on a cell phone and its not a war between pedestrians and drivers but thats what it looks like so lets hope for this young boy to be okay… share the road and be patient

    • noname

      I understand your frustration, but given that the boy was on bicycle (and the above posting, if it is true) the boy probably was not at fault.

    • J-F

      This is disgusting. Are you actually suggesting that the party at fault is a 6-10 year old child? High high horses are a good idea though, they might make pedestrians more visible and less likely to get hit by 12 ton vehicles operated by professional drivers.

    • Another Anon

      Downvote me all you want people but we can’t deny the typical pedestrian’s haughty attitude.

      No, you don’t cross the bus loop and play real-life Frogger when a vehicle is going down the bus loop. Don’t use the excuse that you have to run to class or catch the bus to ignore every single traffic rule and dart across the bus loop. It truly amazes me how often people do this and risk getting run over AND expect the bus driver to stop. Absolutely mind-boggling. It’s like people are willing to get run over. Stopping suddenly can also be a safety issue – in some cases it’s better for the bus driver to speed rather than to pump the brakes and cause some 20 people to get hurled to the front of the bus.

      Before you flame me to the depths of oblivion let me say that I agree with NotADriver: Let’s all be nice to each other and SHARE THE ROAD. When I drive to school I don’t try to barrel down the UBC freeway and hit every single cyclist I see, even if there are two side by side (even if the bike lane is only wide enough for ONE). Similarly when I take the bus I wait for the goddamn bus to pass before I cross.

      • Anonymous witness

        While I understand your frustration, I think it is rather insensitive for you to take this stance regarding this particular accident. The bus was going at a considerable speed through the red light (other people at the scene were estimating around 50km/h), while the crossing light was already on. I do not think “speed”ing through a red light should be condoned.

    • Max

      But, that didn’t happen here. The driver had a red light. What is your point?

  • anon

    If the “Witness” that posted is right, then will the bus driver even be charged since technically you’re not allowed to ride your bike across the crosswalk and if you do, legally, you will not win with ICBC.

    • noname

      The driver cannot be fault-less if he hit the boy on the red light. The likely case is that he will not be charged for the full damage if it can be proven that riding bike exacerbated the damage done to the child.

      • noname

        he = driver. I did not mean to assume the gender of the driver.

  • witness2

    The bus definitely hit the kid through the red light.

    It was going fast too. Kid had to have been first off the curve and a split second ahead of the other twenty people waiting to cross. Would not have seen it coming through the crowd.

  • jill

    Agree. Probably due to the many pedestrians around the bus loop, drivers have become fed up waiting for people to cross the street or dodge out of the way. I’ve noticed some new measures like a crossing guard. Last year a bus came inches from hitting me (literally I put my hand out and touched the windshield), as I was crossing the street with a group of others and happened to be on the side of the crosswalk closest to the oncoming bus. Luckily I jumped out of the way, but it was very obvious the driver saw us and was just doing it because he’s sick of pedestrians. I have also been on many busses that have run red lights because the bus is so full that it would be dangerous to jam on the breaks to stop in time.

    • Max

      “the bus is so full that it would be dangerous to jam on the breaks to stop in time.” Then, they are driving too fast. If between the time a light turns yellow and the time it turns red, you can’t stop safely, they are driving too fast. I don’t get what their hurry is.

  • family friend

    this is my friend’s son. He is in stable conditions but has suffered head trauma. He is undergoing some tests at the children’s hospital as we speak.

    • Witness

      Thank you so much for posting this. I have been thinking about him and wishing him and his family well.

  • Another Anon

    Every cyclist should know that you have to look both ways before crossing, same goes for pedestrians. We all know that there’s always going to be that guy, the errant driver who barrels down the road trying to beat a stoplight. Please make a conscious effort not be be roadkill.

    There’s a reason why it’s frowned upon to ride your bike along a crosswalk – incidents like the one in the article could happen. Instead of pointing fingers and blaming the kid or the bus driver we should probably stop and think what we aren’t teaching people when it comes to road safety. Kids should really be taught to make sure the coast is clear before crossing (walking alongside their bike, not ride their bikes along the crosswalk). Drivers should be taught to be extra cautious as well.

    This is just one of the hazards of the job as a bus driver – you have people darting across the street all of a sudden. Sometimes they stop in time, and sometimes it all happens so suddenly that they can’t. Please don’t hate the driver. Everyone in the comments is assuming he/she did it because they were sick of pedestrians and doesn’t give a rats you know what about the kid. He/she’s probably just as guilty and traumatized as the kid is.

  • S999

    hey everyone, I think we all forgot, was this kid even wearing an helmet? And Where was The Parent. Okay fine let’s not blame the kid, kids here are raised to be overprivileged (I am one). Let’s not blame anyone. This article is sort of pointless then, it raises many questions about the details of the scene and apparently we are blaming the driver.

    It is very hard not to run over cyclists that are riding adjacent to each other–chatting–taking their time (when there isn’t even a bike lane which means it is very tight car lane) re: swervy road on SW Marine Drive near rez.

    Just kidding

    I’d yell at them but then they’d just feel like they are justified to give me the finger

    • sadly witnessed

      he was wearing a helmet, he was with a friend and they had the right of way…the bus driver went through a red light. I don’t think this is a situation where children were chit chatting and not looking where they were going. They were being safe, waited until they had the green light and then headed on their way.

      • B

        If the kid weren’t wearing a helmet, he wouldn’t have survived. The kid will likely be impacted by this injury for the rest of his life, and the driver gets a violation ticket. Woohoo.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=116201059 Ricardo Bortolon

    ACCIDENTS HAPPEN SOMETIMES

  • Derek

    Well, at least only minor injuries according to the article. Hopefully the bus driver learns to slow down and to always look for pedestrians and bikers (and motorcycles can be hard to see as well) at UBC in particular as it is so dark here. Hopefully the boy who was hit and his friend learn that even though your light says you can go, it doesn’t mean it is still safe and it is always important to look. This could have been a hell of a lot worse.

    • Witness 2

      Bus ran a red. Kid jumped the crowd as soon as they got a green light.
      Plan and simple, a professional driver almost killed an innocent kid. Oh, and the article is wrong, he’s still in hospital

  • clearlywitnessed

    I was in another bus that
    was stopped, going the opposite way; I was gazing outward directly to my
    left and I saw this kid biking fast from the direction of the UBC
    hospital and he darted right in front of the bus 480. The 480 had
    stopped at the bus-stop at University and Wesbrook Mall and had just
    begun to pull forward. But it had gone a couple meters already to have
    gained enough momentum. Even before the boy was hit, I screamed –
    because I knew he was going to be hit.

    It is really sad that
    anybody got hurt, specially a little kid. But, please don’t always
    default to blaming the drivers. It does not serve the purpose. Kids will
    be kids – we all frogger across busy streets from time to time. But
    maybe we should be aware of the possible consequences. Trying to blame
    the driver when they are clearly not at fault just gives us the illusion
    that we are somehow invincible.

    • S999

      this

    • S999

      this

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