New details revealed in fatal Bronx bus crash

[alp227]

Source: CNN

New York (CNN) -- A National Transportation Safety Board investigation has revealed new facts about the Bronx crash that killed 15 people in early March, with the head of the NTSB issuing renewed calls for changes in bus safety and regulation of bus companies.

One of the primary findings of the investigation so far is that contrary to bus driver Ophadell Williams statement to authorities that a tractor-trailer may have clipped the bus causing the accident, the NTSB engineer who examined the bus found no evidence to indicate that a truck had come into contact with it, NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman told CNN.

The investigation found that the bus, with the 40-year-old Williams at the wheel, drifted to the right before striking a roadside barrier, Hersman said Wednesday in testimony to a Senate hearing on bus safety.

After hitting the barrier, the bus rolled and skidded for nearly 500 feet before colliding with a highway signpost that penetrated the windshield and speared the entire length of the bus, killing 15 passengers, according to Hersman.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/30/new.york.bus.crash.ntsb/index.html

[Wilms]

1. I can't help but wonder about the guard rail design and the placement of the post.

Of course, the bus traveling on it's side is the major factor, but could guard rail design, etc. help protect people in such an awful circumstance?

[wordpix]

2. bus was going almost 30 mph over speed limit ---main factor in crash, IMO

i.e. based on the articles I've read. WhyTF is a bus driver responsible for many lives driving 30 mph over the limit---or anyone, for that matter? To really get the picture, imagine some ahole driving on I-95 at 93 mph (28 mph over the 65 mph limit, like this bus driver). It's a fantastically high rate of speed. Even 78 mph is high, esp. for a BUS.

snip:
Investigators determined that the bus was traveling at 78 miles per hour at some point between leaving the Connecticut casino and the scene of the accident, while the speed limit at that stretch of roadway was 50 miles per hour for commercial vehicles, Hersman told CNN.