OHTA.ca

Yesterday at 3:45pm I was W/B on Queens Queen at Yonge Street. Traffic was heavy and I was stopped on the east side of the intersection waiting to proceed so I would not be blocking the intersection. When there was space for me to proceed, I did and a car travelling E/B decided it would try to turn left. In order to avoid a low speed collision, I maneuvered my vehicle around the front end to proceed.

At this point a TTC bus decided to proceed straight from the right hand turn lane (clearly marked) and struck the right front quarter panel of my vehicle at the pedestrian crossing on the west side of the intersection.

My question is....is this a contravention of HTA 144(9) or something else?

The bus was clearly in a right hand turn lane and proceeded straight through the intersection. The supervisor even told me that they would never get back into traffic without changing lanes in the intersection. Clearly another HTA violation. Any help would be greatly appreciated. TYIA

Some relevant portion of the Highway Traffic Act to consider is:

142.1 (1) Every driver of a vehicle in the lane of traffic adjacent to a bus bay shall yield the right of way to the driver of a bus who has indicated his or her intention, as prescribed, to re-enter that lane from the bus bay. 1994, c. 27, s. 138 (12).

Buses have the right of way and vehicles are required to yield. They will even have a yield sign affixed next to the left rear turn signal. This started about 15 years ago.

Jdc13 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 3:46 amThe supervisor even told me that they would never get back into traffic without changing lanes in the intersection. Clearly another HTA violation.

It's not illegal to change lanes in an intersection. You shouldn't do it, but you can. Although, you can't proceed from a turning lane into the intersection with the intention of merging.

The issue to focus on here is probably the bus proceeding through the right turn lane through the intersection. Looking at the intersection, the bus has plenty of room to merge back without making such a maneuver. It's just become standard process among bus drivers to go continue past the bus bay and merge at the last possible moment. While the bus has the right of way in most cases, I don't believe this is one of them seeing how the maneuver wasn't legitimate.

I'm guessing this is an insurance issue for you? They will use the fault determination rules to determine fault percentages.

I just took a look at the intersection. A little bit before the intersection is a sign that indicates right turn. However, right underneath it, it says “Buses Excepted”. With that said, this might be why the bus driver won’t be found at fault.