In message , at 10:10:56 on Tue, 24 Dec
2013, d remarked:
If he stayed on the road (it's not obvious from the reports/pictures
that he didn't) then I don't blame a bus driver for assuming any
potentially conflicting roadside trees have been cleared away.

Eh? If a tree has a low branch overhanging the road that a bus could hit then
fair enough, but this tree is clearly on the pavement and its not exactly
small. Unless he's clinically blind there is no way he couldn't have seen it.

In this picture, is the bus on the pavement?

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/others/i...s/default.aspx

I'm assuming the kerb next to the bus aligns with that white line just
beyond the two hi-viz in the foreground, and not out where the police
van is parked. Although there does seem to be perhaps the end of a
lay-by directly in front of the bus.
--
Roland Perry