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...
Possibly. The vehicle was in very slow moving traffic. My gut feeling it wasn't brake. I say this because if it were, it would take time, and the heat would have been intense, and the driver would have most likely smelled it long before it actually ignited, since it was in slow moving traffic. Just speculating here.
The engine is in the rear of the bus from the pictures posted. Doubtful that the driver would know anything with the engine 30 something feet behind him. Just speculating as we do not know for sure yet what happened.
Metmom, if you get HBO, there is a great documentary called In Memoriam. It's Rudy Guiliani and his staff's comments on that terrible day and it shows all these home videos from different people taping while the horror unfolded. It is a powerful powerful documentary and it does not shy away from showing the jumpers. If you don't get HBO, see if you can rent it. I taped the documentary by the French firefighters and it is just an amazing thing. The look on the firemen's faces everytime a body landed. I know people who worked at that pile of burning rubble for weeks and they are still traumatized. They could not find any whole bodies to recover, they were bringing out parts in buckets. I don't mean to gross you out, but this is the real horror of what those monsters did to living, breathing, innocent people. My mom worked on the 90th floor of the North Tower, I am grateful she did not work there on 9/11. If you ever get to Albany NY, at the Albany Museum is the 9/11 exhibit, with a crushed firetruck, id cards, mementos from the attack, including a wheel from one of the planes. They run the French brothers film continuously. No one leaves that room without tears. Also, the Flight that Fought Back from the Discovery Channel was good and you can buy it from their website. Let's never forget this and teach our children never forget or forgive. FReepmail me anytime, sounds like we are of like mind and heart.
In very slow moving, stop and go traffic, if it were brake related, the heat would have to be very intense to actually ignite, and, if it was brakes, it would seem to me that would have taken time to produce those type of high temperatures to actually ignite.
In this scenario, slow, stop and go traffic, it would just seem the the driver and passengers would have smelled it for a period of time prior to the ignition.
This was probably one of the first questions the investigators asked the survivors.
It may be a while before we are told what really happened.
One thing for sure and that is I no longer have a desire to own a bus as an RV.......
Later reports are surfacing, and they are saying some witnesses say there were explosions. Also read another article that stated some of those burned to death were also decapitated. I don't know what would cause this in this case, but an explosion would certainly be something to look at.
I wish I'd been paying more attention. It was either CBS or ABC network news, and they also said the bus company had been cited a number of times, but I didn't catch the reason.
did you catch the name of the bus company?
If true, and this turns out to be a safety related cause of this event, there will be criminal charges filed, not to mention the enormous civil actions. Better to face a hurricane, than be burned alive.
If you come across it, ping me.
It is a "recommended" regulation to my knowledge, per the ICC. Most carriers do enforce it, but I don't believe it is illegal patently to smoke on a bus.. A lot of charter lines would be out of business then..
maybe it was terrorism
Yes...the Soviets had already had the same thing happen, but rather than warn us of the danger, they covered up the event, airbrushed the victims out of official photographs of their cosmonaut corps, and let us proceed. :-( The descriptions of that Soviet disaster were horrific, where one of the victims lived for a while and they had to give him injections through the sole of his foot because it was the only place with some skin left.
And I'm with you, metmom. I've heard people say that the 9/11 jumpers thought they might survive by jumping. No way. They preferred that death to death by fire. I would have gone with them.
I've heard that some said that via cell phone, and that others could be seen trying to use tablecloths as parachutes. Of course, they failed to realize that they'd be trying to support nearly their entire weight from the little bit of grip they had, so they tore loose... :-( Others are believed to have been blown out of the building by the updraft of the fire, knocking them from their refuge on the ledges or by the windows.
WWI pilots were known to have jumped from their planes rather than burn in the cockpit.
So horrid.
Bush's Fault!
In addition to finding that there really were explosions involved, it seems we're learning that restrictions were waived on registrations, etc., because of the emergency situation. Evidently, the bus was likely sitting unused in need of registration/inspection, but was pressed into service. As for the Mexican driver's license, the company reportedly had a bad history of driver problems. See: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/rita/3367695
Company that owned ill-fated charter bus had driver violationsOr we can just scream "It must be the Muzzies!" and feel good about ourselves. </sarc>
The bus chartered by a Bellaire nursing home to evacuate residents from Hurricane Rita's path had lapsed registration but likely was pressed into service because of the emergency, according to state records and officials.
Also, the company that owned the bus had a serious history of driver violations. In the last 2 1/2 years, the carrier, Global Limo Inc. of Pharr, had five drivers put "out of service" during random inspections in Texas, New Mexico and Missouri, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. [...]
A representative at Global Limo in Pharr said the bus was in "good condition" prior to the incident. He declined to provide his name during a face-to-face interview at the company’s office, though he identified himself as Juan to someone who called in over the phone.The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, which maintains corporation records in the state, reports on its Web site that Global Limo is "not in good standing as it has not satisfied all state tax requirements."
The state comptroller records identified James H. Maples as the company’s owner. Juan said Maples was in the Dallas area when the incident occurred and met with authorities following the accident.
"The bus was leased," Juan said. "It’s leased from a company out of Maryland."
Global Limo itself has six buses and 10 drivers, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency that regulates buses. As of Friday, the company held a "satisfactory" carrier safety rating.
However, on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being best and 100 being worst, Global Limo rates 96.96, or "deficient," on its driver safety evaluation.
Federal safety performance data indicate there was an "inspection warranted" for Global Limo as of Aug. 26, but it is unclear whether that inspection was performed
"Later reports are surfacing, and they are saying some witnesses say there were explosions."
That is usually tires bursting. With 100+ psi air pressure it makes a mighty bang. Even after 18 yrs in the fire service, it still makes me nearly soil myself.
Agreed.
So on a scale of 0 to 100 with 100 being best, they scored a 3. hmmm..
I've been thinking about this now for a bit.
I saw somewhere online that perhaps a piece of metal somehow got stuck in the rear duals, locked up the brakes, and that caused the original fire. I can try and find that write-up.
Then I thought, brakes and tires smell. New brakes smell and you can see the rear wheel wells from the outside mirrors, and one would notice if there is smoke in that area. iirc, most bus fires start at the tires or in the engine.
But if they've had issues with drivers following safety regs, maybe he wasn't paying attention to his mirrors. I also wonder what condition the other tires were in, if the vehicle hadn't been inspected recently, and the brakes.
So, I guess I'm still thinking.
Even if that would be the case under normal circumstances, venting oxygen into a fire will cause the vessel to be heated more rapidly. Even if a tank doesn't burst, it's going to dump its entire load of oxygen onto the fire pretty quickly.
this is a story i found online today, about brakes possibly starting a fire. it looks like a regular transit bus from the pic, so one set of rear duals.
http://technicianonline.com/story.php?id=012257
it will be awhile until we know exactly what happened to the houston bus, if ever, considering the amount of damage.
prayers for all those folks and their families.
KTLA just reported the hero as you called him has been arrested by Texan authorities and jailed for negligent homicide. And they also reported he's an illegal alien to boot.
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