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Bus explodes carrying evacuees (24 dead, Fox News)
drudgereport. ^ | 9235

Posted on 09/23/2005 5:08:41 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch

DEATHS: Bus carrying Hurricane Rita evacuees has exploded on Interstate 45 near Dallas...


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: burningbus; bus; buses; bushsfault; dallas; evacuees; explosion; hurricanerita; rip; rita
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To: Steve_Seattle

161 posted on 09/23/2005 8:30:42 AM PDT by RDTF
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To: Steve_Seattle

That was a report from KRLD radion. The bus could drive with a flat tire. Have you seen the dual wheels (tires) on buses and trucks? That's how he was able to drive with a flat tire.

Again, I will try to find a text link, but right now it was only reported on the radio.


162 posted on 09/23/2005 8:32:00 AM PDT by SpottedBeaver (Allen, TX -- Directly North of Dallas -- I'm down the street from FReeper L,TOWM)
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To: RetiredArmy
"Is THE END in sight? Just wondering."

The end of the traffic jam, the end of our national crises, or the end of the world? Apropos of the latter two, there are warnings up an upcoming worldwide flu pandemic.
163 posted on 09/23/2005 8:32:06 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: SpottedBeaver

I've never noticed dual wheels on buses, but then I've never really looked for them, either.


164 posted on 09/23/2005 8:33:52 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Steve_Seattle
"Somehow, that doesn't sound credible. In this traffic jam, how could the driver drive a bus with a flat tire to a shop? It sounds like a bogus rumor to me."

Have you seen the number of tires on a bus? If one of the two tires on the back is flat the inflated other one will keep you going slowly for a short distance to get it repaired.

How sad that this has happened.

165 posted on 09/23/2005 8:34:11 AM PDT by Spunky ("Everyone has a freedom of choice, but not of consequences.")
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To: Gondring
And the histrionic FReeper would be the type to have knee-jerk speculations on an already painful situation.

What do you expect, it's 2005, and the foolish or scared would rather try to come up with all kinds of wacko theories about terrorists taking out buses or global warming causing hurricanes, when vehicles have been catching on fire ever since they first started rolling off the assembly lines, and hurricanes have been hitting our coasts for God only knows how long.

I do pity those who try to blame hurricanes on global warming, for being ignorant (not just Al Gore, but he's at the top of the list..).

I also pity those who assign happenings like the bus fire, or the airplane landing wheel incident to terrorists. They must live with a lot of fear to automatically assume that everything is potentially a terrorist act, regardless of how often it's happened in the past. I couldn't imagine living my life being that afraid, and so I do feel sorry for them.
166 posted on 09/23/2005 8:35:28 AM PDT by af_vet_rr
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To: Steve_Seattle
Look at the picture in the post in #161. You can actually see the dual wheels in the back.

It looks kind of like this ---> --O--------OO-|

167 posted on 09/23/2005 8:36:58 AM PDT by SpottedBeaver (Allen, TX -- Directly North of Dallas -- I'm down the street from FReeper L,TOWM)
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To: Steve_Seattle; RS
I see your point, but this bus fire is so unusual

It's also unusual to be moving so many people with such urgency. The chance of a regular old garden-variety (non-terrorist) problem increases more than linearly as numbers and urgency are added (people act less safely when rushed...perhaps leaving a valve open, or pushing equipment too hard, or getting fatigued faster). Besides, odd accidents happen quite often...this one just becomes so noticeable above the noise because of our focus there.

But besides the horror of it, if this is all that Al Q. can manage (something that strikes less terror than just tragic sorrow), then it looks like we're winning quite handily, eh?

168 posted on 09/23/2005 8:40:03 AM PDT by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: af_vet_rr
"They must live with a lot of fear to automatically assume that everything is potentially a terrorist act, regardless of how often it's happened in the past."

Several times a year, do buses become flaming infernos because of a routine maintenance problem like a faulty brake line? I've never seen it before. And, frankly, I'd be more likely to live in fear if THAT were true than if terrorists were blowing up buses.
169 posted on 09/23/2005 8:41:44 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: SpottedBeaver

Not bad, good image.

I think on most buses, of the two rear wheels, the front is a single while the back one is dual.


170 posted on 09/23/2005 8:41:47 AM PDT by PeteB570
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To: Gondring
"The chance of a regular old garden-variety (non-terrorist) problem increases more than linearly as numbers and urgency are added (people act less safely when rushed...perhaps leaving a valve open, or pushing equipment too hard, or getting fatigued faster)."

True, true, and true. Still, if there was ever a perfect example of Murphy's Law, this is it.
171 posted on 09/23/2005 8:45:54 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: serpentineshel

I hope I don't get religious with you but there are things we can not control and somethings we can control. Nature is a powerful force and should never be second quessed. No matter how the local, state and federal government plans for emergencies...human nature will dictate its outcome. The left are saying we can not control the out come of a natural disasters how can we be protected by a terrorist attack? Homeland Security attached to Fema is a failure. They're not helping the matter by being Americans first and have empathy for the victims of this hurricane. They're most interested in nit picking Bush. I'm sure there's been bad hurricanes before. We use to say it was act of God but not anymore. It dawn on to me how the left are morally bankrupt. They take a delight seeing people suffer to get back at people they don't like. They are blinded by their hatred. They can't look at the world around them. It's all about politics to disprove Bush. I'm sure typhoons were pretty bad out in the Pacific but they don't get reported. I live Illinois and for couple of years we had a rash of tornados. This year its real quite! People also forget the 95' Chicago Heat Wave which killed 700 people. Mostly poor elderly black people who didn't have any air conditioners. They sealed themselves inside their apartments. They didn't dare open a window or the hoodlums would enter.
Every winter we hear about house fires in the South Side of Chicago because the poor people heat their homes with electric heaters or oven stoves. The Federal and State has emergency supplies of natural gas to take care of them but it seems it never gets to them. I always hear about devastating fires that kill score of little children on the news. It's been happening for years with no solutions. I expect next year with the oil and nature gas shortages they will be politically expendable.


172 posted on 09/23/2005 8:46:02 AM PDT by Milligan (I don't know much about history)
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To: PeteB570

Yes, the rear wheels would be dual and the front ones would be single.

It was reported that they were able to make it a short distance to a shop to get a new tire. I'm guessing that it was a rear tire base on that information.


173 posted on 09/23/2005 8:46:43 AM PDT by SpottedBeaver (Allen, TX -- Directly North of Dallas -- I'm down the street from FReeper L,TOWM)
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To: theFIRMbss

Those nursing home folks
on trial for murder will use
this in their court case . . .
---
Perhaps they will have a case.

Let the jury decide.


174 posted on 09/23/2005 8:48:24 AM PDT by Cheburashka
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To: rabidralph

Ewwwwwwww! I don't even want to think about that!


175 posted on 09/23/2005 8:48:40 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: deport
Fire on Bus Carrying Evacuees Kills 24

By SHEILA FLYNN, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago


AP Photo: Emergency crews investigate
the scene where a bus caught fire
and exploded on northbound Interstate...

WILMER, Texas - A bus carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire and was rocked by explosions early Friday on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, killing as many as 24 people, authorities said.

"Deputies were unable to get everyone off the bus," Dallas County Sheriff's Department spokesman Don Peritz said. He said he believes 24 people were killed, but that number could change.

The bus, with about 45 people on board, had been traveling since Thursday. Peritz declined to give details on who the passengers were except to say they were from a nursing home in Bellaire, an upscale enclave within Houston.

Early indications were that it caught fire because of mechanical problems, then passengers' oxygen tanks started exploding, Peritz said. He said the brakes may have been on fire.

The bus was engulfed with flames, causing a lengthy backup on Interstate 45 already congested with evacuees from the Gulf Coast. The bus was reduced to a blackened, burned-out shell, with large blue tarps covering the bodies. About 20 emergency vehicles surrounded it.

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas has been told to expect nine patients, said hospital spokeswoman Candace White. The most severe cases involved smoke inhalation, she said.

No emergency workers suffered major injuries in the blast.

Tina Jones, a nurse from Ennis, was driving behind the bus when she saw it start to smoke and pull to the side of the road.

"I saw the smoke and then there was an explosions," said Jones, who pulled over and helped treat cuts and bruises. She said she saw at least six bodies.

"I'll probably go home and have a good cry," she said.

Peritz said the driver survived. "It's my understanding he went back on the bus several times to try to evacuate people," he said.

Interstate 45 stretches more than 250 miles from Galveston through Houston to Dallas. The crash site is roughly 17 miles southeast of downtown Dallas.

Authorities were taking the unusual step of moving the wreckage to a remote location to continue the investigation there, so the interstate could reopen for evacuees, Peritz said.

"You have thousands of people who are in their vehicles trying to escape," he said.

Gov. Rick Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said traffic on I-45 would be diverted at Ennis, about 30 miles southeast of Dallas. She said it was unclear how far the gridlock extended.


176 posted on 09/23/2005 8:49:07 AM PDT by deport
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To: Steve_Seattle

Google burning bus. It may not be an everyday occurence but it does happen.


177 posted on 09/23/2005 8:49:51 AM PDT by Sally'sConcerns (me - SW Ok, My son and sister @ Hwy 6 & Bellaire in Houston.)
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To: WasDougsLamb

"Those poor people....breaks your heart . :--("

Yes it does.. How horribly ironic, they left to save their lives, and in doing so, lost them. Really sad stuff.


178 posted on 09/23/2005 8:52:05 AM PDT by SeaBiscuit (God Bless all who defend America and Friends, the rest can go to hell.)
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To: ariamne

My sister, who was in the Air Force, said she heard rumor the the guys in mission control who heard the screams of the astronauts were never the same. I remember hearing a clip of the astronauts and they said, "There's a fire!" and then it ended abruptly. Shiver. This is one of my two choices on how NOT to go. Drowning's the other. My heart breaks for these people and their relatives.


179 posted on 09/23/2005 8:52:10 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Milligan

Interesting points.
I totally agree with the fact that Moral Bankruptcy is at the root of the misery here.

People don't pull together. Christian morals are a thing of the past. The moral are so outnumbered by the "entitled" that when trouble starts the good opt for self defence.

Moral of the story here is: Don't ever do ANYTHING, ANYTHING the Government tells you to do. You may end up dead in a bus without SNOWBALL.


180 posted on 09/23/2005 8:56:59 AM PDT by NormB (Yes, but watch your cookies!!)
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