McCain's bus mishap in Miami

[bubbaqgal]

McCain is in Butler County, Ohio tonight at a $250 per person event.  That oughta bring in enough to pay for the damages.

[HB of CJ]

Me thinks bobofthenorth has it exactly correct.  About the exact same thing exactly kinda happened to me way back in 1970 or sooos when I was driving for the City of Bakersfield Muncipal Transit System.  I had left room on my right (blind) side setting up for a tight, right hand turn. 

The lady who hit me (actually I crunched her car up onto the sidewalk) came literally out of nowhere and tried to squeeze between me and the curb sooss she could turn right tosss I guess.  Signaling, I had checked my mirror before/while turning,  Happened soosss fast.  Oh well. 

[Busted Knuckle]

McCain is in Butler County, Ohio tonight at a $250 per person event.  That oughta bring in enough to pay for the damages.

So are you and Dallas attending? Thay way Dallas could give a bid on repairs! Just add the price of the tickets in it, they'll never know the differance! LOL!    BK 

[bubbaqgal]

Not really in the mood for rubbery chicken tonight.  Plus he might see our bus in the parking lot and want it instead of his fancy old bus.  We like the greasy part of bus work, not body work.

[Lee Bradley]

Even with half a lane, they will put their car in there.

[RJ]

Classic example of a "right-hand squeeze" - the van lost.

Chances are very good that the bus driver will get a "preventable" notation to his company file, however.  If you look at the damage on the coach, he kept going after first making contact with the car.  Had he been paying attention and stopped as soon as he saw the van starting to squeeze in, and the van still kept going and hit the bus, then the van's driver would be totally at fault.

The insurance companies are gonna love this one!

Of course, if McCain had been on the bus, the drive-by media would have been on it like the paparazzi chasing "commando" Britney Spears!

Moral to the story:

WATCH YOUR MIRRORS!!!

[47FLXclipper]

you guys sure are tough on car owners - minivan trying to squeeze in? the minivan was ........... parked   

REAL moral of the story, pay attention to the size of what you're driving

Bill

[JohnEd]

So there I was traveling north on I 5 from Roseburg to Eugene.  75 in the fast lane and keeping up with the flow of traffic in the fast lane.  As I was passing a semi the thing started to pull into the fast lane to pass another truck.  He didn't seem to be going fast enough to need to pull out as early as he did and he sure didn't signal.  He came over so fast that as i backed all the way out of the gas he was set to crunch me into the median guard rail/concrete wall that is a scant 4 feet from the pavement.  I hammered the brake so hard I engaged the ABS on all four.  That is a quick stop in a Lex SC400.  The rear truck of the trailer came so close to my right front fender I expected to see scuff marks on it the next time I stopped.  I called the Orygun Highway Patrol at the next off ramp and spoke to a very pleasant mannered dispatcher.  She was very sympathetic and said the trucker must be drunk or on drugs as I suggested.  He drove off the right side of the road all the way to the dirt, some 8 feet and also weaved into the fast lane half way three different times as I followed.  She assured me that she had a "cruiser' only a few miles north of my posit and assured me that the truck would be pulled over to have his log book checked...at least...and thanked me.  From her "cruiser" comment on I heard a lot of laughter in the background and her voice changed.  OSP has taken a lot of budget hits these last few years during this time of plenty and recently hired a hundred troopers, or so I read.  Now we are looking at serious budget shortfalls and of course the OSP has heads on the block and no replacements for retirees.  In accordance with how I was treated in a thoroughly professional manner, I will be one of those Conservative voting citizens lobbying for expanding the OSP budget.  After all, what are satisfied customers for, anyway.  There were no semis pulled over between Roseburg and Eugene and I got no call back as promised.  

Had my brakes not performed like that Jap engineer intended, I would have gone under the rear truck of that trailer and been little more than a grease spot and a fond memory.  Well maybe only a grease spot but you get my point.  What really got my goat was that that highway is traveled by women and children and old folks(that would be me) and the lives of such is not a joke.  I limped for two days because of what pushing the brake that hard did to my right knee.  I was in Roseburg at the VA hospital for an exam for knee replacement surgery and by rights I shouldn't have been able to do that without using both feet.

My experience with the law enforcement agencies in Or. isn't very deep but none of it has been good by any stretch except North Bend on the coast.  A while back I came by info on a probable sex offender living outside my local jurisdiction.  I talked with my local Chief and he asked if I had prayed for the soul of the molester?  I was only asking him for his advice on whether to go to County, State or local with the info as i wanted my privacy protected and would only be willing to testify to what I had been told and knew.  We used to call these people Jesus Freaks but that was an insult to freaks everywhere and I had been clueless that that chief was so predisposed.  Then they get sued for a couple million for not taking requisite appropriate action to save a child and all they learn is that life isn't fair and the system is really screwed up and we have to take the gloves off and let law enforcement do what needs to be done.  Puke, unless that is Hari Cari !  These people need close monitoring.  My point is that it isn't only traffic law that is out of whack.  That Chief has since been fired and there is a cloud hanging over concerning budget and fund irregularities, or so i have gathered from the paper.  I prayed for his soul, wouldn't you know.

Well, I'm glad i could get that off my chest.  Hope you are too,

John

[Sojourner]

McCain's bus mishap in Miami 
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/631908.html
Quote..."The driver was the only one in the van.

''This was an unfortunate incident, but we're thankful that everyone is OK,'' said Mario Diaz, campaign manager for McCain for the Southeast Region.

McCain was campaigning in Ohio on Wednesday.

They found the van driver at fault, said Officer Kenia Alfonso, a Miami police spokeswoman. The van driver, whose name was not released, was cited.
...Unquote.

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.veterans/browse_thread/thread/cdfd3b1034dded00


Sojourn for Christ, Jerry

[JackConrad]

McCain's bus mishap in Miami 

They found the van driver at fault, said Officer Kenia Alfonso, a Miami police spokeswoman. The van driver, whose name was not released, was cited.

Sojourn for Christ, Jerry

I would say that is 1 vote McCain will not get LOL   Jack

[chazwood]

I bought my bus from the guy who shuttles McCain around. He lives 25 miles from my house. He started driving around the "hopefuls"  back in the sixties and still has Reagan's bus on the lot.
The red "straight talk" articulating bus was sitting there when I picked up my bus and so I took a little tour of the insides of both the Reagan and McCain.  Of course, this was back when McCain was still only one of many republican candidates and I thought he didn't have a prayer.

I know you're all eaten up with jealousy....... but it really wasn't that big a deal.


I mean, how do you turn that into an interesting story for your grandkids.

[belfert]

Doesn't the driver's manual for the CDL say NOT to swing wide when making a right hand turn?

I got a CDL permit years ago when the local State Fair was going to require CDLs for driving trams on the fairgrounds.  Their insurance company wanted them and then changed their mind.  CDLs are not required by law as the streets are not public.

I always thought that commercial and other large vehicles are not supposed to swing wide on right turns specifically to avoid a car getting in the way as happened here.

[H3Jim]

You / we need an extra lane in either thedirecdtion we are turning from, or the the direction we are turning to. 

Otherwise we take out mailboxes,.ladies on the curb, stop signs and other things we don't want to run over.  But I'm singing to the choir....