The bus company director bowled by one of the firm's vehicles in central Wellington last month accepts it was his own fault.
Tim Brown, who was critically injured, told Fairfax NZ he had no memory of the accident that saw him spend 20 days in hospital but based on what police and others had told him, he was to blame.
"I looked left when I should have looked right."
The NZ Bus director and Infratil executive, who is now recovering at home, said he remembered leaving the office and then waking up in hospital.
"I woke up and didn't really know what was going on. I remember my mother-in-law staring at me with a look of dismay on her face. I couldn't talk at that stage, so I just had to give her the thumbs-up."
He was fortunate the bus that hit him was travelling about 20kmh.
"If it had been the old 50kmh speed limit, I'd probably be dead... I just fluked it basically."
He said he was "not in that much pain" and hoped to be walking properly in a few weeks before returning to work next month.
But there were still a lot of broken bones in his foot, ribs, arm and shoulder on the left side of his body that needed to heal first, as well as a punctured lung.
Wellington City Council last week issued a review into the safety of its revamped bus lanes and largely blamed pedestrians for at least 13 incidents of people being hit since November 2010.
Mr Brown agreed with that assessment, saying he knew bus drivers were worried about people stepping out in front of them.
He had sent a letter to the bus driver and hoped to speak to him soon.
"It must just be awful for that poor guy."
Mr Brown said he was a fan of the council's revamped bus lanes but questioned whether enough forethought was put into how the public would cope with roads switching to two-way traffic.
NZN
