Man furious after buses keep smashing into his car parked outside his house

18 June 2024 , 08:51

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Man furious after buses keep smashing into his car parked outside his house

A man says he feels like he is "spinning the roulette wheel" every time he parks outside his home - after his cars were damaged by TfL-managed buses.

Reece Manning, from Harold Hill in Havering, east London, first encountered problems in February 2021 when a Stagecoach bus scraped his car while passing it in the road. The damage caused meant Reece had to organise an expensive repair - the cost of which Stagecoach, a company under contract with Transport for London (TfL), eventually covered.

However, since then, Reece's car has been scraped again by buses - and his mum's car was hit so badly in June 2023 that it had to be written off. The latest incident happened in recent weeks - with video footage capturing the moment the bus hits the car, briefly slows down, and then drives off.

CCTV footage shows a London bus scraping Reece's car (Garry Middleton/SWNS)

Reece said: "The bus driver hit the car and then just drove off. You can see from my neighbour's camera footage, it's quite an impact. The car shakes a lot. It's not a minor scrape, so the driver would know that he's hit something." Each incident has happened from buses travelling in the same direction, on either bus route 256 or 294, Reece said.

Reece is currently in touch with both Stagecoach and TfL demanding that they compensate him for the latest damage. While he has successfully received compensation for the two previous incidents, he said that the "stress" of waiting for the pay-outs has been tough.

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He said: "A repair is always just a repair at the end of the day. Even then, you've still got two weeks of waiting for them to get back to you. It's the stress of knowing you can't really park on the road. You spin the roulette wheel every time you park outside your house that a bus could just hit your car.

The damage to Reece' car caused by the bus (Reece Manning/SWNS)

"You can see from the video how clear the road is, it's not like the driver has to navigate between two parked cars – it's just one parked car on the side." Since the incidents, Reece has also urged Stagecoach and TfL to conduct an investigation to ensure there are no further scrapes to the road.

When asked for a comment, Stagecoach said to contact TfL. Rosie Trew, TfL's head of bus service delivery, said in a statement: "We're very sorry for the distress caused to Mr Manning and the damage to his vehicle. We are investigating with Stagecoach, the bus operator, to establish what happened."

Rom Preston-Ellis