“Careless Driving- Reversed Into School Bus”

Hi all,

Would appreciate your input on the below. I did perhaps the most stupidest thing ever recently.

My sister and I got into my car in my driveway. I put the car into reverse and saw out of the corner of my eye that my sister had left the front door wide open. This caught me off guard. I was distracted and also had my car in reverse and my foot on my accelerator. By the time I realized I needed to turn around and check traffic behind I had hit the rear of a school bus that was in motion.

Everyone was ok. The rear bumper of the school bus was a bit dented and my tail light broke and my bumper was scraped sideways (indicating that I had hit the bus while it was in motion).

I was issued a careless driving charge when the cop came around. I sent in my notice to set up a First Attendance meeting.

Few questions:

1. The cop made an error on my accident report saying that the bus was at 0 km/hr when I hit it (which is not true)- what should I do?

2. The cop suggested I plead guilty to a lesser charge- which seems reasonable- but what charge would be suitable? Turn not in safety? Failure to yield right of way? This happened in my driveway and the bus was travelling on the street when I backed into it.

3. What should I be prepared with when I go to the prosecutor?

Thank you.

I would say the error in regards to the bus speed is pretty minor. It wouldn't cause the ticket to be thrown out if that's what you're thinking.

A possible lesser charge would be fail to yield from private drive, HTA 139(1).

Stanton wrote:I would say the error in regards to the bus speed is pretty minor. It wouldn't cause the ticket to be thrown out if that's what you're thinking.

A possible lesser charge would be fail to yield from private drive, HTA 139(1).

Thank you, Stanton. No, I do not expect the charge to be dismissed. I do acknowledge my fault. I was just not sure if the mistake in the accident report would impact me negatively in an way...

Thank you for the highway act reference.