Bridge 1:0 Bus
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From: IanAl on 12 Dec 2009 07:47 On Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:08:18 -0000, "Ian" <idh(a)henden.co.uk> wrote: >"alexander.keys1" <alexander.keys1(a)googlemail.com> wrote in message >news:d53e1bab-686e-4c2b-bc46-379243d9474f(a)r5g2000yqb.googlegroups.com... >> On 11 Dec, 20:09, Chris Tolley <cj.tol...(a)bogus.co.uk (ukonline >> really)> wrote: >> >> "A double-decker bus carrying children on a school trip has had >>> its roof torn off after crashing into a bridge in >>> Leicester. >>> Ten nine and 10-year-olds were taken to Leicester Royal >>> Infirmary with cuts and bruises after the bus hit the >>> railway >>> bridge over Lancaster Road." >> >>> Roland Perry >> >> Presumably not a regular bus route, since it was a school trip, but >> the bridge is a bloody great steel girder painted in yellow and >> black >> stripes, and has a height restriction sign attached to it, though I >> can't see what the height is because the roof of the bus is in the >> way. Don't vehicles anything like high enough to hit bridges have >> the >> height marked in the cab? Those that I've seen do. What happened? >> Was the driver given the wrong route? was (s)he following the route >> they were given? Had they taken the wrong route? Were they driving >> a >> higher vehicle than they were used to? Were they just not paying >> attention? was the height marked on the bridge, or in the cab, >> incorrect? Had the road level been raised by re-surfacing? Surely >> if >> you're driving something high on an unfamiliar road you take care >> when >> approaching a bridge, and ensure that you can get under it, not hit >> it >> fast enough to take the roof clean off. >>> Standing at HN28 signal wrote: >>> >>> > Reported on Yahoo that fog may have been to blame. >>> >>> No, the driver is to blame. If the fog is so thick he cannot see >>> what is >>> in front of him, then she should not proceed. >>> >> >> He's certainly guilty of "driving without due care and attention", >> it >> is the driver's legal responsibility to be aware of hazards and >> avoid >> them, no excuses. >> >> >Until last April I was a bus driver. > >If on an unfamiliar route (e.g. a private hire or something similar, >in an unfamiliar part of the country) and I came across an overbridge >that looked a bit "tight" - even one the locals said "You can get >under that easy!" - I slowed right down, positioned bus appropriate if >it was an arch so bus was in line BEFORE entering arch (even if that >upset motorists coming the other way) then approached with head >hanging out of cab window watching busroof / vs bridge interface ..... >and went through slowly, and listening. > >Or got someone to watch. > >Problems with height markings in cab: Often not accurate, usually >someone decides to add 6" for "safety". > >Problem with height markings on bridges: Often not accurate, someone >decides to add 1' for safety. Or else someone installs pipework under >the bridge. Or lays 3" od tar on the road. With another 3" a couple of >years later. > >Problem with "standard height" buses: they are not standard. Coldhams >Lane in Cambridge has a bridge on the way out to Cherry Hinton, it's a >normal double deck bus route. ECOC had loads of ECW Bristol >Lodekkas - all the same (sort of....). One of them lost its little >round roof ventilators on the bridge just after having had new tyres >fitted, and when the driver was cogging it on a bit making up time and >went over a bump in the road under the bridge... same bus had been >under loads of times before without incident. > >See http://www.henden.co.uk//751atHolmesley.jpg .... if you did not >*KNOW* that your DD would go under that bridge, would you try it? Yes, but from the pictures of the accident, it's clear that the driver must have thought he was driving a single-decker.
From: Roland Perry on 12 Dec 2009 09:42 In message <a447i5d0mphu6dhb046n24pamuj8258deo(a)4ax.com>, at 12:47:41 on Sat, 12 Dec 2009, IanAl <me(a)privacy.net> remarked: >from the pictures of the accident, it's clear that the driver >must have thought he was driving a single-decker. Odd then, that his employer says he normally drives double-deckers. -- Roland Perry
From: Ray Keattch on 13 Dec 2009 08:58 mike scott wrote: > alexander.keys1 wrote: >> On 11 Dec, 20:09, Chris Tolley <cj.tol...(a)bogus.co.uk (ukonline >> really)> wrote: >> >> "A double-decker bus carrying children on a school trip has had >>> its roof torn off after crashing into a bridge in Leicester. > .... >> height marked in the cab? Those that I've seen do. What happened? > > Satnav in use? Why satnav? -- MrBitsy
From: S on 13 Dec 2009 09:26 On Dec 13, 1:58 pm, Ray Keattch <r.keattch5...(a)btinternet.com> wrote: > mike scott wrote: > > alexander.keys1 wrote: > >> On 11 Dec, 20:09, Chris Tolley <cj.tol...(a)bogus.co.uk (ukonline > >> really)> wrote: > > >> "A double-decker bus carrying children on a school trip has had > >>> its roof torn off after crashing into a bridge in Leicester. > > .... > >> height marked in the cab? Those that I've seen do. What happened? > > > Satnav in use? > > Why satnav? Satnav has the effect of turning the driver's brain off, so lorries go down narrow country lanes clearly marked as unsuitable for them and get stuck, because that's the shortest route the satnav finds.
From: Ian on 13 Dec 2009 10:44
It wasn't a lorry. Lorries (tend to be) one lorry - one (or two) drivers. Lorries which go to many strange destinations MAY sometimes be fitted with satnav or the driver MAY have his own. Most lorry drivers know how to use a satnav properly. But: It was a bus. (seen pictures of it on the interwebbything, and it looked more like a bus, even with its roof off, than a lorry.) Now: Buses tend to work all day, and have maybe 6 or 7 different drivers during the day. Buses tend to work the same group of routes all day. Most bus drivers know where they are going - indeed, they know which bit of road to use to minimise bumps. Any one busdriver is not very likely to drive the same bus two days running (although it can happen). Any gizmo fitted to a bus only works until its first breakdown - after that, it only gets fixed if absolutely necessary. Bus companies are exttremely unlikely to fit sat nav to their vehicles. Bus drivers are very unlikely to fit sat nav to their vehicles. Taking all these factors into consideration, the likelihood that the bus driver actually had a sat nav is small. And if he or she did have a sat nav, the likelihood that he or she was relying totally and blindly on it, is a magnitude of a thousand smaller. Please do not extrapolate the effect of a satnav on YOUR brain, th the effect of a satnav on a lorry or bus drivers brain. (IMO, the driver probably either thought it was a cleared DD route, or was on a route where he would normally have had a SD. His fault maybe: but NOT sat nav.) -- Please visit our appeal at http://www.donatetobreastcancer.org/nakedbikeride Thanks Ian "S" <s_pickle2001(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message news:00e0e7b3-1e26-45da-9790-7081b2e4f393(a)g12g2000yqa.googlegroups.com... On Dec 13, 1:58 pm, Ray Keattch <r.keattch5...(a)btinternet.com> wrote: > mike scott wrote: > > alexander.keys1 wrote: > >> On 11 Dec, 20:09, Chris Tolley <cj.tol...(a)bogus.co.uk (ukonline > >> really)> wrote: > > >> "A double-decker bus carrying children on a school trip has had > >>> its roof torn off after crashing into a bridge in Leicester. > > .... > >> height marked in the cab? Those that I've seen do. What happened? > > > Satnav in use? > > Why satnav? Satnav has the effect of turning the driver's brain off, so lorries go down narrow country lanes clearly marked as unsuitable for them and get stuck, because that's the shortest route the satnav finds. |