This past Sunday night a horrific bus crash occurred on
Highway 38 between
Forest Falls and
Yucaipa in
San Bernardino County, CA. It involved a tour bus losing its brakes coming down the mountain road and striking other vehicles and then flipping over at least once and then coming to rest on its wheels. This was not before dumping some of its passengers out onto the roadbed and rolling over them and dragging them along the roadbed creating a gory smear of red asphalt. Below are some rather tame images compared to what survivors and first responders witnessed before most of the bodies were removed. The cause of the crash is under investigation by state and federal authorities. These images come courtesy of
Press-Interprise.
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| Note the crushed pickup whose driver died in the hospital this morning bringing the death toll to eight. |
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| Although the bodies have been removed it is obvious where at least three and possibly a fourth came to a rest. |
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| From this view it is clear another body came to a rest to the left of the bus in this image. |
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| Note the pickup that the bus hit and then rolled over crushing it and ultimately killing its lone driver. |
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| Note the blood smears on the side of the bus and the lone arm dangling from the near-front window. |
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| Note the rather gruesome blood streaks and smears on the side of the bus. |
Gotta wonder - did the brakes fail because the driver was not smart enough to down shift?
ReplyDeleteI have had the bad luck to drive large trucks without breaks on downhill routes.
In one case, I did a controlled crash, which is hard to do by dragging and scrubbing speed off of the shrubs and trees along the road. I had to do this to get the transmission to engage lower gears.
Another truck went into one of the CalTrans sandpits.
My impression is the driver could have made better decisions. Then again, most people just panic, which seems to be the case. Maybe because I grew up without money, and had to build most of my own motor toys, I thought these things through a little more.
It is funny because when I was teaching my kids how to drive, I also showed them how to crash, as much as one can. My father, former Air Force Capt. and flyer loved it, my mom - not so much. We spent hours at the local go-cart track developing basic skills of thinking "what if".
Maybe better driver training could have avoided the needless deaths.
Got time to teach me? Nice! I should have done the same!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteThe Federal Government shut down the Mexican bus company involved upon finding two of their other operating buses to be unfit for the road. The bus driver repeatedly warned managers that the breaks were not working and was ordered to carry on each time. He even asked a passenger to set up front and help him hold down the break pedal with the passenger's foot. At last check there were several lawsuits against the company and those managers.