Bus crash on Sunday

[steve5B]

  On Sunday in northern Indiana a SUV crossed the interstate from a blown tire and hit a bus head on .The wife of Pro Golfer

  Cris Smith was fatality injured in the accident.  The passengers on the bus (semipro football team ) had minor injuries.


   Steve 5B....

[Len Silva]

Once again, a terrible tragedy caused by the most basic of driver errors.  Apparently, the sixteen year old daughter was driving, drifted out of her lane and over corrected.  It happens so many times, it hurts my heart.

It should be one of the most critical areas of driver training that when something unusual happens, a noise, a blowout, even another car hitting you, that you just lock the wheel in your hand until you have time to figure out what is happening.

[Busted Knuckle]

Once again, a terrible tragedy caused by the most basic of driver errors.  Apparently, the sixteen year old daughter was driving, drifted out of her lane and over corrected.  It happens so many times, it hurts my heart.

It should be one of the most critical areas of driver training that when something unusual happens, a noise, a blowout, even another car hitting you, that you just lock the wheel in your hand until you have time to figure out what is happening.

I agree whole heartily about the cause! And somewhat to the training part, but with some people the funeral would be over and they'd still have the wheel locked in hand and wandering what the heck just happened!

I always have and still say that there should be some sort of way of testing a persons "functionary skills" or a "common sense" test to be sure they have a clue to go with that license in order to drive in public!
 BK  

[MCI-RICK]

Len,

It should be one of the most critical areas of driver training that when something unusual happens, a noise, a blowout, even another car hitting you, that you just lock the wheel in your hand until you have time to figure out what is happening.
[/quote]

I couldn't agree more!!!

Rick

[loosenut]

It takes training to regularly preform the correct action in an emergency.  In So-Cal they dropped driver  education from the schools.  I suspect that is the same in many areas of the country.

I believe it was the Marines that had a big announcement mandating driver's education for all active duty personnel that rode motorcycles.  It seems the service had more people killed in accidents than in combat over the last X-number of years.

Mike

[belfert]

Driver's Ed is still required in Minnesota even if it isn't taught in the public schools.

I took driver's ed classroom training in high school in the late 80s, but it was after school and I think my parents had to pay for it.  Behind the wheel was through a business as the school had dropped behind the wheel the year before as the auto dealer(s) quit providing the cars for free.

[Airbag]

Try a locked throttle on a freeway exit or an engine fire/smoke with a bus full of someone elses kids. That gets your attention and heart rate going.

[TomC]

The vast majority of drifting-"falling asleep"- accidents happen when the driver wakes up and jerks the wheel back to the road then lays the bus/truck over.  It takes training to learn not to jerk the wheel-whether it be from drifting over the crack of the shoulder, or trying not to hit an animal.  In any rate, the bottom line is to keep the vehicle upright.  If you do drift over the shoulder, slowly and smoothly turn the wheel back into the lane of traffic.  If you're already going down the embankment into the center or off the road-better to steer into the decent and get stuck since you'll still be upright.
This accident is a reminder that many of the past blow outs with defective tires on SUV's causing flip over is caused by un experienced drivers freezing up and not knowing how to steer into a skid.  One thing I did both with my car and big rig was to find a big parking lot at night when raining then go do stupid maneuvers and try to correct from them-nothing like the real thing to train you for the worse.  Good Luck, TomC

[Airbag]

What we need is the skid pan brought back like what we had in the fifties, one in every town where our youth can let her rip and get a feel for a automobile that has lost traction and learn how to drift and really handle a car in adverse conditions. The way we teach now does not give any real life practice, we just tell them what to do and hope they remember.

I remember as a child going to Stuttgart to pick up a new Mercedes with my parents and we took a cab from Frankfurt. The cab driver drove like a bat  out of hell and when we came to the exit he did not slow down at all but rather threw the cab into a drift cross steering and adding power all the way around the curved exit. I was loving it but my folks were white as a sheet.

[Jeremy]

I think a skid pan in every town is a great idea. It's certainly no coincidence that most top rally drivers come from the Scandinavian countries, where driving on slippery surfaces is a way of life.

Can't help thinking that a central barrier between the lanes would have prevented the accident as well.

Jeremy

[Nusa]

Barrier couldn't have hurt, but interstates are already some of the safest roads in the country. This is a fairly typical rural interstate stretch, two 12-foot lanes each direction, 8 foot right shoulder, 4 foot left shoulder, with ~50 foot or more grassy median between the directions, usually with a drainage ditch in the middle. So the girl had to be completely out of control to cross the 60-80 feet (depending on which lanes the vehicles started in) of separation between them.

It's pretty amazing anyone at all in the SUV survived that, in my opinion.

[Dallas]

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mazMXuxvMKw

I think a skid pan in every town is a great idea. It's certainly no coincidence that most top rally drivers come from the Scandinavian countries, where driving on slippery surfaces is a way of life.

Can't help thinking that a central barrier between the lanes would have prevented the accident as well.

Jeremy