What could go wrong?
Posted on 09/11/2018 7:53:59 AM PDT by SMGFan
An overcrowded bus plunged into a gorge in southern India on Tuesday, killing at least 55 people and injuring several more, in one of the worst such accidents this year, authorities said.
The bus, part of the state-run network in Telangana, was returning from a hilltop temple in the district of Jagtial, about 190 kms (118 miles) from Hyderabad, the state capital, a district official said.
"The driver lost control and the bus skidded off the road and fell into the valley," a top district official, G. Narendhar, told Reuters. "The majority of the passengers have suffered severe injuries."
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Yes, Officially, the limit is 40-45. Unofficially, it is based on the GWR weight, typically 500 people.
I remember taking inter-city buses in Mexico ever some rather mountainous terrain. The driver always crossed himself repeatedly.
What could go wrong?
It amazes me that there are as few road deaths in the U.S. given the way most people drive.
I'm pretty sure that word doesn't mean what you think it means.
Stealing passage via sneaking up to the roof is so ingrained in their culture that train companies hang cement balls over the tracks, on chains, to hit the people on the roof.
It’s on Youtube, and its pretty harsh.
I saw a photo of a decaying sternum/chest cavity floating on down the Ganges while a few feet away a dude is brushing his teeth in the river.
Yum!
Cheater justice. As I recall in the video I was referencing, they dumbass tried to balance himself by grabbing the power lines. DOH! And yes, he was on fire. Literally.
Oh man, so sad.
Someone on that bus could have gone on to invent something great.. like the “Toilet” or “Pavement” or “Air conditioning”
Or maybe even fulfill the need that the world has for un-qualified phone based tech support.
Such losses that we’ll never fully understand.
Indians own far fewer motor vehicles (per capita) than the Americans but have far more motoring deaths (per capita).
“[O]vercrowded bus in India” is a redundancy. India is so equipment-poor and so manpower-rich that virtually all equipment is overloaded. It isn’t unusual to see a standard 9-passenger van carrying 25 or so commuters on their way to work. Twenty or so packed like sardines on the inside, plus another five or six standing in the doors. They remove the door panels that ordinarily would be on the inward side of the doors so another rider can perch his feet inside the door as he stands with his arms holding on to the top of the door. And they driving merrily down the highway with the doors standing open and another passenger riding on the door.
It’s common to see motorbikes carrying three adult passengers, plus, sometimes, a child or two. And only one is required to wear a helmet, but if it’s a Sikh riding alone, that rule is usually ignored. It’s also common to see the passenger carrying cargo. Like an office chair, perched on top of his head.
And the Indians are supremely democratic about use of their roadways, even 4-lane divided highways. Farmers and drovers use them as well, so in addition to overloaded buses, trucks, cars, motorbikes, and bicycles, wagons pulled by draught animals (usually camels) and other farm equipment is common. Plus herds of cattle or goats, and sometimes domesticated elephants. All on the roadway together. Even after dark, despite the fact that the most of them don’t have a sign of a light or safety reflector.
But I didn’t look at this and see a state of primitiveness, I saw it as millions of people taking advantage of an opportunity to better themselves. A nation of burgeoning entrepreneurs yearning for the government to get out of their way so they can earn a decent living.
At that rate you would think that they would give Silicon Valley and Israel more than a run for their money in all things technology related. However they fact is that they are inept and can barely make anything especially in weapons technology and almost 99% of their stuff is imported. To their advantage they do have a healthy & steady economy at about 7% annual GDP growth.
We twice spent several weeks there touring in a private car with driver. It was “quite the experience”.
We twice spent several weeks there touring in a private car with driver. It was “quite the experience”.
Congratulations, you lived to tell the story.
There’s a ton of that material on the innerwab, when you’re bored and want to see how the other half lives.
I’m amazed how poor they are and yet there’s always a phone filming the mishap....
Roads don’t kill . Wreckless drivers and speeding kill .””
Speed doesn’t kill.
IT is the SUDDEN STOP that kills you.
When I lived in Mexico, I remember reading about once a week a story about a bus falling off of a cliff and killing almost everybody on board.
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela seemed to be the biggest culprits.
The common denominator regarding the ones that survived the accidents, was that most of them were asleep and didn’t react or “hold on” to brace themselves. They just let their body’s loose and tumbled along.
I agree but give first world automobile engineering and highway engineering some of the credit.
And the river is full of crocks...
remove the w.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.