and you thought you were having a bad day with your bus...

[gumpy]

http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/03/25/watch-bus-passengers-brazil-narrowly-escape-massive-sinkhole-raging-floodwaters

[Oonrahnjay]

http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/03/25/watch-bus-passengers-brazil-narrowly-escape-massive-sinkhole-raging-floodwaters

    Wow, bus surfin!!!

[Jim Eh.]

Anybody wanna buy a bus. Freshly bathed!

[solodon]

And the insurance adjuster says "yea, right".

[TomC]

I didn't know they made houseboats! 

[Jeremy]

At least this one managed to stay out of the water - blown off a road in Scotland today and rolled over down the embankment. Five people seriously hurt but bus looks surprisingly undamaged given that it's apparently been on it's roof.






Story here on BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-32072481

Jeremy

[gumpy]

If that bus rolled, I am seriously amazed!

[Oonrahnjay]

If that bus rolled, I am seriously amazed! 

      Yeah.  I was once at a road safety conference in Oxford; (though I was concentrating on air bag crash testing) there was a session on bus/coach safety.  I asked the presenter what were the big issues with bus crashes.  He said "the weight is in the chassis, drive train and rolling gear -- if they go on their side, they tend to go 'lozenge shaped' and crush everything inside".  Yeah, that painted a picture.  And this one isn't lozenge shaped, but it sure has clumps of dirt and grass in strange places.

[TedCalvert]

Doesn't look long enough for 50 pax, as the article stated.  But, thankfully, they all lived.  It  seems that often the windows come open when a bus goes onto its side, and the pax are not restrained.  This bus must have had seat belts, and some of the windows are still closed.  Are those brown things out the windows, flapping in the breeze, airbags?

[Jeremy]

I'd be 99% sure that those windows are smashed, not just open - as will all modern buses the glass units will be bonded directly into the bus body. The brown things flapping about are just curtains - there's a video on the BBC page and you can see them blowing about furiously - it was obviously very windy day.

I find myself very curious to understand exactly what happened in this accident - the article says the bus 'overturned' and elsewhere it says "...causing the bus to flip on its side and roll down the hill" - so I'm not clear whether it ever went on it's roof (and the lack of damage suggests it didn't), but if it didn't, how did it get back on it's wheels in the position it's in? Curious.

Incidentally, the angle the photo is taken from foreshortens things a but it's clearly a 3-axle bus so is probably 13-metres long - easily enough for 50 passengers

Jeremy

[Iceni John]

Due to the broken windows and the clods and tussocks on its roof, I'm guessing it rolled a complete 360 degrees and came to rest back on its wheels.   There's no way a high CoG coach would have stayed upright going down that steep embankment.   Maybe the soft ground there prevented greater damage to the roof and bodyside  -  Scottish peat and topsoil is quite springy.   Many years ago when riding my bicycle along the A82 next to Loch Ness I was also blown completely off the road by an unexpected gust, and my bike and I landed unharmed in a boggy area with nothing broken on me or my bike  -  I can well believe a gust of wind could push a high-sided coach off the road.

Is that a Volvo 9700?

John

[Jeremy]

A complete 360' is the only manoeuvre which makes sense to me as well, and I agree completely about the soft and springy peat soil up there - but still...

The bus is a Jonckheere by the way - guess they build 'em tough.

Jeremy

[krcevs]

http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/03/25/watch-bus-passengers-brazil-narrowly-escape-massive-sinkhole-raging-floodwaters

Honey! ------Where did you put my water wings?!

Ken

[gumpy]

I'm not convinced. The mirrors are still intact. That thing on the front of the roof looks flimsy plastic or fiberglass.

[Jeremy]

They've updated the story and included some passenger quotes. Does seem that the thing rolled-over, possibly multiple times:


Passengers on a coach which left the road in high winds and rolled down an embankment have recalled their terror as the bus overturned towards a loch.

The tour coach, which came off the A83 in Argyll at the Rest and Be Thankful at about 14:10 on Thursday, came to rest on its wheels beside Loch Restil.

Of the 52 people on board, 23 were taken to hospital, where 18 remain.

Dave Russell, from London, and Wendy Bysouth, from Kent, said they thought the coach was going to hit the water.
'
Ms Bysouth described the scene on the coach, which was owned and operated by Lochs and Glens Holidays, as it began to overturn.

She said: "All of a sudden I just felt the coach just move and start to roll and as it was rolling people were going up in the air, the windows were breaking, the curtains were going and we were getting nearer and nearer the loch.

"That's all I can remember, thinking, one more roll and we're in the loch, and it was so, so frightening."

Mr Russell said it was fortunate the bus did not end up in the loch.

"When it flipped over, I was looking at that water. I thought we were going in and there was no way we would have got out if it had gone in," he said.

"It hit the embankment and luckily, after that, I managed to get our seatbelts undone.

"We got out the window and I dialled 999 and got the emergency services, luckily, because the minute I finished the phone call the connection went."

On Thursday, Road Policing Inspector Adam McKenzie said: "A tour bus which was heading through Argyll was struck by a very strong gust of wind which unfortunately blew it on to the muddy verge, causing the bus to flip on its side and roll down the hill coming to a rest at the side of Loch Restil."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-32082475