Two Die in Missouri School Bus Accident

[sws4420]

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/05/09/school.bus.accident.ap/story.crash.jpg

LIBERTY, Missouri (AP) -- A school bus crashed into two other vehicles Monday morning, killing two people and injuring more than 20 children.

Officials would not immediately say if those killed were on the bus or in the car and SUV involved in the crash, but the car and SUV were nearly demolished.

Sara Cooke, spokeswoman for the town, confirmed two people had died but had no further details.

Twenty-three students were taken to hospitals, with 15 other children released to their parents, Liberty School Superintendent Scott Taveau said. He said he had no information on the children's conditions.

The bus was taking kindergartners through fifth-graders to Ridgeview Elementary School when the crash happened about 8:30 a.m. near the intersection of two highways.

Liberty Police Lt. Mark Misenhelter said the cars were heading east and had apparently stopped at a stop light. The southbound bus suddenly veered right as it approached the intersection, slamming into both cars, he said. It wasn't clear why, he said.

A view from a television helicopter showed the damaged bus in a grassy area.

Frantic parents showed up at the scene despite pleas from the district that parents stay away.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/09/school.bus.accident.ap/index.html

[trashmonster]

the two killed were in the cars not the bus...its estimated that the bus was going between 60-70 MPH. the bus driver has a spotless record and had asked them to check the brakes on the bus several times before the accident. they had it on tv ALL day that it happened...was gruesome showed em tenting the car were the bodies where.

[sws4420]

Isn't there some kind of box inside a bus that keeps track of how fast the bus is going for the bus company's records? I know the buses that I rode on in school had them. There's ways to slow a bus down without brakes, so I'm not really sure of the excuse. Anyone driving a bus has a CDL, and anyone with a CDL has taken courses in this very thing.

[trashmonster]

where the accident happened there is like this small hill then a slight incline...then a huge ass hill, she was going down the hill. the had one of those camera set up things that kept track of all that and taped the kids on the bus...it had stopped working a couple of months ago and she complained about that too.

[sws4420]

Sweet. So it's the fault of the bus maintenance department.

:sniff: Ahh...the sweet smell of a lawsuit...

[trashmonster]

Sweet. So it's the fault of the bus maintenance department.

:sniff: Ahh...the sweet smell of a lawsuit...

kansas city and this area is kinda known for their bus accidents...you would think the dumb fucks would have learned

[trojanmiro]

im trying to remember how the air brake system worked on buses from back when i used to work in a bus garage 5 years ago. i wasnt certified for air brakes so i couldn't work on them, but i did the dot testing with the inspector. i am pretty sure though that with the air brakes on school buses, once the pressure fell below a certain level, the emergency brake automatically came on. actually im positive of that now. and bill, yes there are governors on school buses, atleast in nys. the one thing that the head mechanic told me is that every law involving a school bus is written in blood. basically a kid had to die to make it a law.

[sws4420]

Like just about every safety feature on everything else in the world. Look at all cars have now that they didn't back in the day.

[trashmonster]

that is screwed up. witness to the wreck all said the samething...they didnt hear brakes.

[trojanmiro]

yeah, i always sat in the bus and just did what the inspector told me to do. he would make me step on the brake repeatedly till the pressure fell enough where the e brake would kick on. then i would have to start the bus and make sure the pressure built back up for the brakes to work. you don't deal with geniuses in fleet operations, not even in the garages. most people in a fleet environment are like the dude from the granville thread. we had one guy ourselves who hooked the fucking air lines back up wrong and after thousands of dollars in parts later, air brakes are not a cheap system to fix, finally traced it back to that. he was fired.

[trojanmiro]

also bill, governors only slow a bus down to the maximum allowed speed on a bus, if the driver goes over 55 the bus will only slow down back to 55.

[trashmonster]

just saw something on the news about it...they arent sure if it was the bus or some kind of medical event for the driver...they looked at her past driving record i think and so far they havent found anything in it...or it could have just been what it was an accident

[MERV]

i understand the thing about the governers on the buses, i was actually going to say that all the buses i've ever been on have been set to 55 mph's. Also on a deisel vehicle that size, there is a jake brake system that is supposed to slow them down farther than the governer, i know that the fire trucks i ride on have the same types of engines as the buses, and as far as i remember we are required to have the jake brake systems on the trucks

[trashmonster]

im just repeating what i am hearing...i dont even know what a jake thingy is