It wasn’t as bad as it looked

The driver emerged unscathed, but his 1978 Buick Regal had its front bumper crushed by a Sonoma County Transit bus Wednesday morning at the corner of Broadway and West MacArthur Street.

Deputies responding to a call around 11:30 a.m. found the side of the bus seriously dented, but the bus driver and her lone passenger were both uninjured by the impact.

According to Deputy Mike Baraz, the slow-motion collision was a simple accident. Baraz said the No. 30 bus, southbound on Broadway, had come to a stop at the traffic light, with its turn signals indicating the driver’s intention to turn from the number two turn lane onto West MacArthur Street (a legally allowable maneuver because of the bus’ wide turn path).

Meanwhile the driver of the Buick had existed the 76 Station on to Broadway, moving into the open far right lane. The deputy reported that the driver, a 64-year-old Sonoma man, had not noticed the bus’ blinking lights. As the bus took the wide turn onto West MacArthur, its driver, a 59-year-old woman from Cotati, unaware of the presence of the Buick, crushed and incapacitated the front end of the car, which had no place to go.