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.

As a result of the damage, Mr Manning 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, Mr Manning’s car has been scraped again by buses – and his mother’s car was also hit by a bus causing damage which was beyond economic repair in June 2023.  

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.

Reece Manning has complained that double decker buses continue to hit his car which is parked outside his house in Havering, east London

Mr Manning’s Mazda RX-8 has been damaged by buses twice. Luckily for Mr Manning the collisions have been captured on a neighbour’s CCTV system. Following the first incident, he was able to secure payment for the damage

The CCTV footage shows how the bus scraped along the side of the Mazda RX-8, pictured

Mr Manning 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, Mr Manning said.

Mr Manning said he 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 payouts has been tough.

Mr Manning’s mother’s car was also struck by a bus, although the damage was considered to be beyond the economic value of the car so it was written off by insurers

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.

‘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, Mr Manning 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.’