Bus Cameras?

[andy zarse]

I was in Brighton on saturday doing some shopping with the G/F, who is a trained nurse. Walking down Queen St (main shopping strip on a hill) when a cyclist, who was clearly whacked off his tits on angel dust, came coasting down the hill at speed, swerving gaily across both lanes, swung out from behind a bus, back into his own lane at high speed and immediately proceeded to smash into the boot of a very large and very hard Volvo. Hilariously, he was catapulted over the handlebars and landed on his back in the middle of the road. G/F dashed to his assistance and I spoke to the car driver who was a little peeved at the massive gouge out of the rear bumper. The cylist got up and was completely unhurt, a good job he was stoned off his head if you ask me. He said his brakes had failed but on a £500 mountain bike with full-on discs all round, I find this hard to believe.

Anyway, the bus driver behind honked his hooter at me, gave me a ticket with the bus's details on and told me he'd got the whole accident on CCTV. WTF? Why would a bus have a camera running of what is going on ahead? Seems a bit excessive for bus lane enforcement. And useless if there's a fight on board. Anyone know what the reason is?

[jasandjules]

I imagine it is for nicking people who are parked/driving in bus lanes.

After all, the fines issued will more than cover the CCTV costs in the short to medium term.

[gpshead]

The ones I've read about only record while they're in bus lanes. Got to make it "efficient" by paying operators to go through as little footage as possible.

[becca_viola]

Gotta say, while the cyclist sounds like he was really asking for trouble, somersaulting over handlebars sounds less hilarious and more like many months in ICU followed by rehab, from where I'm sitting...