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Epcot Center Drive closed due to major accident
- Thread starter PhotoDave219
- Start date
Disvillain63
Well-Known Member
Same in Georgia.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
Speaking as a tourist, all be it one with a fair bit of driving experience, I have to say Id rather drive anywhere, including Italy, than in the US.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
Hell, they don't even know which side of the road they should be using.
just typical foreigners, give them a bit of independence and it all goes to pot.
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
As a driver of a "big vehicle", my first thought of blame goes to the big vehicle. It appears that this accident was preventable by the bus driver's actions, no matter what the woman did; there are very few accidents that are not preventable. We could get more information later, but it appears that the deceased woman's car was stopped in the lane and did not swerve in front of the bus. A professional driver needs to maintain space on all six sides of the vehicle. Yes, a bus is big and takes longer to stop... that is not a surprise to the bus driver and everyone knows to increase following distance. It appears that the driver was following too closely or did not "aim high in steering" i.e. look far down the road as he/she was travelling. How can we tell? Because he/she totaled a car from behind that does not appear to have swerved into the bus's lane.
flynnibus
Premium Member
To me the big thing is the speed delta to create such a crash... but it's so hard to judge when we have such limited information.
You can only create deltas for distances you can see... and things in that distance, etc. So many questions.. so little detail at this point.
You can only create deltas for distances you can see... and things in that distance, etc. So many questions.. so little detail at this point.
Goofnut1980
Well-Known Member
Our trip last December, we had someone jack wagon pull in-front of our ME bus and slam on their brakes to get into the right lane to exit and our ME bus has to slam on the brakes and swerve into the next lane or we would have slammed into them... And the person in the car had the nerve to get mad at the ME bus and gave us the finger when the bus blew the horn at them...
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
And the driver had left himself enough room to "avoid" the collision. That is the purpose of safety zones. It is also the basis of every defensive driving class ever given or taken. First thing is always have an escape route in mind. Safe Driving isn't just sitting behind a steering wheel and stepping on an accelerator. However, experience tells me that in many communities any space left over for safety is usually taken up by some other vehicle who's driver needs to have that 8th of a second edge in their forward motion. Sometimes things just happen too fast to make an adjustment. That is what makes investigating an accident like this very difficult and important that all understandable and probable actions are taken into consideration.
I certainly hope that some information is released concerning this because it might be an eye opener for everyone sharing the highway with large vehicles and also for operators of large vehicles to make them aware of just how involved they need to be while operating those machines. I've stated before that the asinine expectation that Disney bus drivers should be entertainers and keep their passengers amused is almost the same as begging for something bad to happen. Let the driver drive and find a way to amuse yourself.
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Goofnut1980
Well-Known Member
Touche! I think everyone has some sort of smart phone they can play with while the driver.. oh I don't know... drives???
Cosmic Commando
Well-Known Member
The managers of my terminal like to repeat to us that every accident is preventable. I don't know if they actually believe that or they're just trying to make a point, but since I actually drive for a living, I'm a little more lenient: if someone cuts right in front of you and slams on the brakes before you can adjust your space cushion, there's really not much you can do outside of possibly swerving your own vehicle. It doesn't appear that the deceased woman swerved in front of the bus, so I'm inclined to think that there was some way to avoid this accident. If her car died and slowed gradually, if she had been stopped dead for a little bit when the bus came upon her, or even if she had been travelling in the left lane for a while and decided to slam on the brakes for some reason... the bus driver can avoid that type of accident through safe driving techniques.
Re: the bolded part. Remember when there was that bus aide that got made fun of by the kids and got all that money on Kickstarter? There were so many people who were wondering what the bus driver was doing while all of this was going on, and some bus drivers even called up local radio shows saying that they knew everything that happened on their bus. If you really think that, either you're naive or you were not paying enough attention to the road. Driving a big vehicle safely takes 100% focus on the road.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Well, a driver does kind of know what is going on physically on their bus usually. But many of the senses are tied up watching, listening and reacting to the world around them. When I drove municipal buses I was always glancing up in my inner mirror. In fact almost as much as my external mirrors, but all I could do was judge what was happening by physical movement. (i.e. fights, arms out window, etc.) Someone could be bullying, but unless the victim told me I would have absolutely no way of knowing it was going on. Now add entertaining the riders to that list and you have just lit the fuse.