Bus crash in Saskatchewan

[lyndon]

Sadly, another fatality from this crash:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/brons-humboldt-broncos-team-bus-crash-1.4615462

Just as I was reading this article, my 17 year old daughter came in the front door and I just lost it. She was great and gave me a big hug! As a Humboldt-born parent, former (but still sometimes) trucker, recreational busnut, former Little League coach and Canadian, I guess, this accident has hit me way harder and close to home than I could have imagined. One of my boys has a classmate who lost a cousin. A player from nearby Airdrie probably will never walk again. So tragic and senseless...

For the speculators, CBC published a image with labels that lay out the scene:



The bus driver will never be charged; he did not survive. But he clearly had the right of way and it's hard to see how the trucker was not the cause of this disaster. But I'm trying hard -- really really hard -- not to speculate.

Just very sad and a bit angry, I guess.

[buswarrior]

Waiting patiently for the RCMP to tell us all, something, anything?

National Post writer Christie Blatchford is losing patience on our behalf, with the Saskatchewan authorities, and the piss poor public relations.

http://nationalpost.com/opinion/christie-blatchford-people-of-humboldt-deserve-answers-not-respectful-silence-about-the-crash

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[Branderson]

From that pic, the only thing that is throwing me is I would have thought the wreckage would have ended up where the parked cars are instead of the road on the left.  That trucker must not have even slowed down at all. 

[bobofthenorth]

CTV interviewed the kid from Airdrie who is paralyzed this morning. The woman doing the interview asked him what he remembered from that night.  He said he was texting his girlfriend, heard the bus driver say "Oh my god", looked up and saw a truck in front of them.  I'll resist the temptation to speculate but I agree with Christie Blatchford - the RCMP could be a lot more forthcoming.  Pretending to be thorough by taking a long time may not be necessary in this case.  My understanding is they also have an uninjured eye witness - the woman who phoned in the 911 call whose car was actually hit by shrapnel from the accident.

[buswarrior]

The somewhat involuntary reactions that drivers make in the last seconds influence the debris field.

It is very common in cases like this to swerve in the same direction as the intruding vehicle/cyclist/pedestrian is moving in.

Human reactions are designed for walking speed. We don't do well beyond that.

I expect the report to be chillingly unremarkable, the human beings involved having made routine errors and routine reactions, like most every other cross roads unintended meeting.

And that is what rocks so many worlds, the bare-assed simplicity of it.

Be safe,
Buswarrior

[Iceni John]

I hope that some simple inexpensive responses (note I didn't say solutions) will result from this tragedy:
   1.   Dashcams should be mandatory in every commercial vehicle.   (Heck, why don't cars have them from the factory now?   They're filled up with other useless distractions, so a dashcam would be peanuts to the car makers.)   They're the next best thing to a flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder.
   2.   All mandatory stops should have serious speed bumps.   I don't mean some ineffectual little ripple or bumplet, but something more like a Mexican tope that will cause damage if you drive over it at anything more than walking speed.
   3.   At known accident blackspots, why, oh why, are cameras not installed?   I personally wouldn't be against having cameras at every intersection, but that's another story.

John

[Branderson]

I don't disagree with any of that but simply cutting down those trees would probably solve it.

[Lee Bradley]

A properly designed roundabout. Something like this https://www.google.com/search?q=roundabout&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CcPRBHPWCLUQIjjOHO9kEwIzdH_1g6ldo_1otP0CAFbzrLtB0-p_1z1JQ4zIMUjgRbUhL-BGYSqyNPIZi0KSV8Go33_1kSoSCc4c72QTAjN0EZvxPGWiqgH4KhIJf-DqV2j-i08Rvkgq6W0hwJwqEgnQIAVvOsu0HREttWaPIwQghioSCT6n_1PUlDjMgEQlO5FFfBBYKKhIJxSOBFtSEv4EREpFHBrX4gQoqEgkZhKrI08hmLREMMTNeH7PHuyoSCQpJXwajff-REeSIN9Fw7MQT&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi79YHdpLXaAhVqrVQKHRy1AFUQ9C96BAgAEBs&biw=1368&bih=925&dpr=1#imgrc=fpLYu0X2U76xYM:

[Stormcloud]

"the only thing that is throwing me is I would have thought the wreckage would have ended up where the parked cars are instead of the road on the left."

A fully loaded bus doesn't weigh nearly what a loaded transport truck weighs, so the impact would not deflect as much as one might think.   

An interview of truck company's owner really pissed me off.  He didn't know what he was gonna do. His trucks are both off the road.
Well, boo friggin' hoo.

Our condolences to all those involved.

[lyndon]

In my view, there is no way the fully-loaded truck could have accelerated from a full stop quickly enough that the bus driver 1) would not have seen him; and 2) have had time to react with more than "Oh my God" to avoid a collision. (To be fair, I believe I read that the Airdrie boy said he felt braking, but evidently that natural reaction must have been too little, too late). Given a few or several more seconds, he might have been able to stop or divert to the left, even honk the air horn, anything else. I think the trucker somehow missed the stop sign -- or braked too late -- and entered the view field much too fast for any other result. IMHO, of course.

[Branderson]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if he was texting or on some sort of computer.  It's hard for me to believe that he couldn't see the flashing red light or if he did see it say...ahh who cares there's probably no one coming.

I agree with the previous poster, I think he was going full speed through the flashing red light.

[Jim Eh.]

Looking at Lydon's aerial view photo it is leads me to deduce the Bus hitting at (or near) the truck drives causing the front end shear and spinning the bus so they both end up heading west with some forward momentum. The tractor trailer with way more tires and weight would resist deflection more than the bus until the back end of the bus came along side the trailers. This in turn caused the trailers to swerve to the right with the bus following them, possibly tilting enough for the elevated trailers to saw through the lower portion of the window posts along the passenger side of the bus. I am certainly no analyst but to me this would explain the positioning of the vehicles and the loss of the roof of the bus.

[eagle19952]

I fail to see the trees as a reason or excuse.

[buswarrior]

Aerial photo doesn't do the sight line justice.

Zero view through that quadrant, so neither driver, attentive or not, would see misadventure developing.

Suddenly,from behind the trees, pop goes the weasel.

The property owner will be exposed to some liability in this... especially with there having been a previous multiple fatality of similar circumstance.

Sadly.
Buswarrior

[Stormcloud]

Since there is a STOP sign, and traffic rules say to proceed ONLY when safe to do so, the truck driver clearly did NOT proceed when safe, doesn't matter if he stopped or not.  Truck drivers fault, 100%. Yes, I agree the trees are in a bad location, and if they weren't there, the outcome may have been drastically different. The previous collision at this corner which claimed several lives about 20 years ago SHOULD have addressed the tree situation, rather than put an oversize, flashing STOP sign.

Too bad it takes a catastrophe like this for things to happen. 

I can see changes on the horizon for newly minted "professional truck drivers".  Something along the lines of an apprenticeship program.