Credit: Clifford DesPeaux/Seattle P-I
Honestly, this never would happen on light rail.
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Yes, because schools won’t (and shouldn’t) use mass transit to take sports teams to away games.
Geez, Goldy is it a light news day or did the meds run out?
Stupid liberal Seattlites went and put a stupid liberal low-clearence bridge right in the way. Hell, a Hummer won’t even fit under that stupid-ass liberal, glorifyied sewer line. Dino will have that raised by mid- January next. Stupid liberals.
I know the trolls will pooh-pooh even suggesting the connection, but this is after decades of the CHEAP-LABOR CONSERVATIVES busting the unions and battling any law, rule or even guideline preventing the hiring for any job of whatever creature can drag its knuckles in the door. So here we had someone at the helm of a 40,000-pound contraption full of kids, whose training apparently didn’t even include the requisite lecture that U-Haul gives every clown who rents a box truck.
It could have been a hell of a lot worse. From looking at the picture, it would appear that if any of the kids had for some reason been standing in the aisle when this happened, he or she would have likely been decapitated.
Driver error
That won’t happen with light rail, but this will …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV2rdGX4JYc
Accident after accident captured on cam by another city’s light rail system.
Also, the Sound Transit Central Link Light Rail line is projecting at least 2 pedestrian deaths in the first ten years.
By the way, Goldy’s post is a better lesson in the need for human judgement and ability over reliance on high tech tools, rather than light rail over buses, as the driver of the bus was so busy following the directions of his onboard GPS navigation unit that told him to go that route, that he didn’t notice the low bridge ahead.
@5 – That was kinda entertaining in a sick twisted sorta way! At least we now know that Seattle isn’t the only place with some of the worst drivers! They are everywhere!!
@5
All forms of rail are safer than cars and buses. Car wrecks kill around 40K people in the us every year.
Goldy, I’m sure this was the work of terrorists who changed street signs in order to kill innocent American children. This sort of thing is exactly why we need domestic wire taps.
Driver was probly one of those dang librals and Almighty God was getting even with Seattle for having the Daily Llama show up.
Just like that huricane down Southe somewheres.
@8 and 9,
Unoriginal and unfunny comedy technique. Done to death on this site.
@10,
What? You object to them stealing your best material?
@ 8,9 LOL!
Troll is a shut in with zero social skills. You have to forgive him as you ignore his paltry insignificance.
When I found out who hired and was occupying the bus I was aghast. First, because my niece goes to Garfield and I couldn’t remember if she was on the softball team, which prompted a hurried call to my brother’s house (she’s not; thanks for asking). And second, because I used to live close to there on Capitol Hill and it is one of the best-marked and hard-to-miss underpass warnings I’ve ever seen.
Q: What kind of moron would not see/ignore this, drive ANY bus completely unaware of its height requirements, or take stupid chances charging around the countryside with a bus full of young girls?
Honestly, sometimes you see stuff that just beggars belief.
I think there needs to be some reflective, florescent paint painted on the lower edges of that bridge.
10 T
Yeah, it wasn’t too funny the first time around either.
Was the driver a government employee? ’nuff said.
@13, you obviously did not read the original story. The driver was so focused on following the directions of the GPS navigation unit that he wasn’t paying attention to the road ahead. He had a false sense of security since the GPS told him this was the way to go.
@16: Nope. Private company hired to do the job.
I actually feel kind of bad for the driver. Sure, he screwed up big time, but who the hell wants a job driving around a load of teenagers anyhow?
They showed him on the TV news. Looked to me like he was silently contemplating his future job propects, outside of his current career.
The driver is probably blind. And the stupid liberal political correct nannification-state liberals allowed him to drive, so as not to damage his self-image. I’m really bitter and clingy about this elitist, pansy-minded crap.
The kids need to take some personal responsibility for being in the bus.
Personally, I blame it all on George W. Bush. If he were not illegally occupying the White House, well…
If a butterfly wing dips in the Chinese pond ……..
to be fair, this also wouldn’t happen with
bus transit traveling on established routes driven by drivers who are familiar with them …
one driver made one mistake.
using this to push your own agenda of pro govt employees anti govt. employees pro liberals anti liberals is just stupid. i am embarassed at the comments on this web site. the only interesting one was that the driver was using gps.
GPS!!! to get from garfield to another place in seattle.
bus company needs to be made to pay to make sure it has a penalty or a consequence so that it makes its drivers learn how to drive around seattle and no, you can’t rely on gps or google driving instructions to do it.
bet that school district won’t do squat against bus driver/bus company
Only useful comments here are Troll’s. Have heard recently about GPS syndrome, similar to pocket-calculator syndrome in public schools of the ’80s and ’90s.
NEA school kids, when given simple math problems and a calculator stealth-programmed to spew wrong answers, would slavishly accept and repeat the wrong answers.
Recent reports are that drivers will slavishly accept screwed GPS instruction when driving to locations that are familiar to the drivers.
NoDak note to Montana: It’s said that, when the GPS points you east from Miles City, you’ll eventually reach the Dakota state line at a point that’s straddled by a sewage lagoon. You’ll know when you’re on the NoDak side of the line and the lagoon because the NoDak side has a diving board.
23. Montana spews:
I could post daily about government employees not only being inept but thieves, killers, etc..
Here’s one for today, right in your part of the country. Just one more dead person because government employees failed to do their job. Priceless.
SEATTLE – A scathing new report says health officials at the King County Jail failed to provide proper medical care to a King County Jail inmate who died in custody last summer, and in one doctor’s opinion, the medical staff “let this man suffer.”
http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/.....7c9b4.html
The first time I took Shuttle Express to the airport about 15 years ago, I almost missed my flight because the driver was a newcomer to this area and his next pickup was at “48th and 52nd” in Laurelhurst–with no indication of which was the street and which was the avenue. If I hadn’t been there to help him, he might still be searching for it to this day.
In London, to get a permit to drive a cab one has to pass a rigourous test confirming “The Knowledge” i. e. familiarity with every street, boulevard, alleyway and goat path within the city limits. Somehow, I think they’ve got the right idea.
26 I’m surprised at you, Marvin….I thought you righties all advocated tossing criminals in dank dungeons and leaving them there until the worms picked the last of the flesh from their bones.
5 Others have pretty well alluded to what’s patently obvious: that every one of the crashes depicted in the video was the fault of the moron driving the vehicle that got struck by the train.
I know a manager with Metro who’s spent a little time working with the operators on the SLUT, and it does take a certain amount of retraining to transition from driving a bus, and becoming comfortable with the fact that all you have at your disposal is a throttle, a brake and a horn–you can’t swerve to avoid some idiot who cuts in front of you. I also remember Tiny Freeman’s horror stories of being a grip-man on the cable cars in San Francisco. There, you have 30,000 pounds of historical landmark going down a steep hill, with nothing to stop it but muscle power. It’s no wonder they hire really big people to run those things. Also that a lot of them get ulcers.
#28 ArtFart spews:
Yeah, but those worms shouldn’t be some unionized thugs that donate/vote democrat. Don’t you agree.
17 T
17. Troll spews:
I don’t know what you mean about “the original story,” but the one linked to in this post did not mention that.
The driver was so focused on following the directions of the GPS navigation unit that he wasn’t paying attention to the road ahead.
I heard a mention of GPS in the news but it was that the driver took the Arboretum route because the GPS directed him that way.
Was the driver distracted by staring at a GPS unit instead of ahead while traversing a narrow road after dark such that he did not notice the bright yellow reflective signs warning of an extreme low clearance reflecting his headlights? Uh, I kinda don’t think so. And it won’t wash in court. It’s not a defense.
You add nothing to my post except that I should have added a fourth clause.
The low-clearance bridge, was built a long time ago. Second, sometimes the GPS is not always right. I wonder, do the makers of those systems have ones that can plot a route that is not height-restricted? My late father bought one a few years ago, it was a model from Cobra, worked pretty well for the most part. Sometimes it would get fouled by the mess of freeway off-ramps disrupting the signal.
I’d expect that while GPS by itself is very reliable at telling you exactly where you are, the navigation database and the software that interprets it may not be as robust. I remember when our daughter used that to get directions to meet us at Rainier Golf Club (where my parents used to belong, and where we had many a family dinner), and if she’d followed them to the letter, she’d have crossed the tarmac at Boeing Field and swum the Duwamish.
30 No, I don’t. I’ve always been a strong advocate of unionization of invertebrates.
33
When I went to a family reunion in Montana awhile back, we lent the unit to my uncle to use. He was driving, me, my mother, and grandmother took the only non-auto, non-aviation way to get into this small town on US2 in Eastern Montana. Amtrak Train No. 8, the Empire Builder. At least they only use their Double-Deck Superliners where they will work. The Northeast Corridor, probably never happen, but that is not to say multi-level coaches are not used there. New Jersey Transit and Long Island RailRoad use them to get into Pennsylvania Station. MARC in Baltimore has some, and so does the MBTA in Boston. These cars have to at least be able to access high platforms at some stations(Superliners out, that means), and fit under the overhead wires. Now back to the GPS Unit, we later used it for something around here, and the last time it had been used by my uncle, the input was Whitefish, MT. Apparently he had got tired of the sometimes false info, that might have been the best way according to the unit.
YLB, Did the driver have a turban? Damn mad
people!
Just so ya don’t go thinking this sort of thing only happens in Seattle.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsack/2361583635/
There are just a few places where a semi-truck could fit under the viaduct through Spokane, Division St, and maybe Maple St. Greyhound and Northwestern Trailways use Division St, from what I remember.
Goldy – A great idea! Build light rail in the Arboretum!!!
“Accident after accident captured on cam by another city’s light rail system.”
Hey, Troll: we’re not in Houston, and ST’s light rail is up on it’s own curb-separated center roadway platform along MLK Blvd. http://www.flickr.com/photos/d.....l-seatrans Unlike Houston’s Metro which – you can see by the video – has it’s tracks built right into the roadway. Cheap, yes. Also dangerous.
“Also, the Sound Transit Central Link Light Rail line is projecting at least 2 pedestrian deaths in the first ten years.”
More disinformation courtesy of Troll. Because Sound Transit and the city re-built the entire stretch of MLK Blvd, from sidewalk to sidewalk; and because the project includes about 20 brand new signalized crosswalks, the study Troll cites shows light rail will actually decrease the number of accidents along this stretch of MLK.
Bus/car bus/truck accidents occur routinely, but don’t make it as major news.
Published: Friday, February 8, 2008
Serious crash blocks I-5 southbound in Everett
EVERETT – A serious collision on I-5 in south Everett critically injured a man and was blocking southbound traffic this morning, officials said.
The crash occurred around 6:30 near the Silver Lake rest area when a 30-year-old Everett man swerved his car into the carpool lane and was struck by a King County Metro Transit bus, said Kirk Rudeen, a Washington State Patrol spokesman.
The man was to be airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious injuries, Rudeen said.
———
Multiple People Hurt In Metro Bus Crash
POSTED: 2:08 pm PDT March 12, 2008
DES MOINES, Wash. — Fifteen people were injured in what emergency crews refer to as a mass casualty incident involving a Metro bus in Des Moines Wednesday afternoon, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.
Six ambulances were called to the scene near Kent-Des Moines Road in the 22600 block of Pacific Highway South.
According to Des Moines police, a car made a right turn in front of a Metro route 174 bus that was in the HOV lane, and they collided at about 1:45 p.m.
Police said the driver of the car didn’t see the bus as they were turning into a Walgreen’s parking lot.
I’m thinking your obsession with rail is a little too similar to Mussonlini to be a mere coincidence
40 Ah, Houston. Wonderful drivers there. A friend of mine used to work as a paramedic there. She quit after becoming weary of her co-workers going out of their way on code responses to play chicken with trains at grade crossings.