BusTalk

Hart Bus · Age: 74 Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 1150

According to today's Newsday, a coach crashed into a pole on Route 99 in Atwater, California. Four fatalities. The bus hit a pole supporting an overhead sign.

From the picture, the bus was sliced all the way up to 2/3 of the bus. Eerily similar to the Video Tours bus crash on I-95 on the Westchester/NYC border recently.

JimmiB · Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 6:07 pm Post subject:

Here is a link to USA Today's story with 2 photos.
I can't believe that the traffic sign pole tore right up the middle of the bus like that !
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/08/03/4-dead-california-bus-crash-not-5/88009878/

traildriver · Joined: 26 Mar 2011 Posts: 2525 Location: South Florida

Sorry to hear about that....horrible for the victims and their families...

Its amazing that no matter how relatively big and heavy buses are...they are relatively fragile in a serious collision. I believe automobiles are stronger proportionately speaking...

To build a bus strong enough to withstand such, would make them prohibitively heavy...

TheDriver · Joined: 18 Dec 2015 Posts: 233 Location: America

yeah that bus stopped at the rear axle where the only strong and sturdy place was. To make the buses stronger would make them very heavy.
A diver once told me that the Scenicruiser was top heavy.
I can see that it was also good enough to carry a big load.
Those old school buses had strong frames but many of you know that they are top heavy and drive like trucks.
To make a point here I am going to refer to a show called Myth Busters where they work to either prove or disprove myths. They did one with a fishbowl bus and tried hard to tip one over by cranking the steering wheel hard with drums that represented the weight of a person.
They first tried it with the drums on the right side and the bus would not tip.
They tried with the drums on the left and the bus would not tip.
So in 1959 GM had it figured out. The show had to rig this bus to flip or it would have stayed upright.
They placed heavy metal plates on the roof and a dump valve that would release all the air from the air bags on the one side just to make it happen.
And in my time looking at bus pictures I saw many ugly wrecks.
You have a heavy engine and drive train at the rear pushing this flimsy body so when it comes up against a tree or building it cannot help but be tragic for the people in it.
I don't know anything about these new buses but evidently they are not superior to the old ones.