• Double decker bus drives under bridge; driver forgets a decker
    14 replies, posted
[img]http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276334/Article/images/20818648/5914778-large.jpg[/img] [quote=swanbrook]A man escaped death by inches when a bus smashed into the railway bridge he was walking under with his dogs, The Swanbrook double decker – which was empty of passengers – had its roof ripped off when it crashed into the bridge at the junction of Wymans Lane and Hyde Lane just after 7am yesterday. The driver said he had “forgotten” that he was in a double-decker bus, thinking he was driving a single-decker. And Philip Green, who lives in Hyde Lane, was walking his two dogs at the scene and was hit by debris. He said: “I’ve never walked so close to death. It was terrifying. Parts of the bus landed on me, I was right there.” As his hands shook on the leads of his two dogs, Mr Green, 57, added: “I’m really shaken up. I could easily have been killed.” The driver of the bus was Paul Bennett, aged 57. He said: “The bus was empty being taken to Bishop’s Cleeve where it goes to Hartpury College. This is my normal route, I started at 6.45am and left the depot at 7am. “I do this route every day but normally in a single-decker, and I just forgot I was in a double-decker. “My first thought when I hit the bridge was ‘what was that?’ and then I just thought ‘Oh no.’ “I pulled the bus over and called the police.” Another witness, Harriet Tweddle, was waiting for her bus on Church Road, 100 yards away from the collision. She said: “You see busses come along all the time, I saw it was a double-decker and I thought, he’s not going to try and get under there is he? And then, ‘Oh dear, he is’. “It was a massive bang when it hit. “I ran over to see that everyone was okay. “I saw that there was only the driver on the bus and I stayed with Philip until the paramedics came along. He was really shaken, but okay.” Mr Green was checked out by paramedics at the scene and taken home after his shock. Police officers closed the road as soon as they arrived, although the bridge was impassable, as the whole of the roof of the bus was across the road, shattered glass lay everywhere and some windows had even been rolled up by the impact.[/quote] [url]http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Double-decker-bus-collides-bridge-Hyde-Lane/story-20818648-detail/story.html[/url]
Reminds me of this [video=youtube;qs1QcRTOMEg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs1QcRTOMEg[/video]
This just happened recently in Chicago, too, except instead of being a somewhat humorous close call, it was a sudden tragedy in which several people died. My dad was supposed to be on that bus to come visit me back home, but got sick and had to postpone his trip!
It's like that one scene in Terminator 2 [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/MN6mTlr.png[/IMG]
[video=youtube;z6q5z4q0euY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6q5z4q0euY[/video]
I've driven places where at some point I start to zone out then when I snap out of it I wonder "How did I get here?" It's like there's an autopilot mode in my brain, I bet that's what happened here. That driver probably drives single decker most of the time, so his autopilot isn't used to accounting for a double decker bus, oops!
I know the dude is used to the route cause he drives a single-decker, but I woulda thought the buses have some sort of Nav with the routes built in and yell at the driver when they go the wrong way, to prevent this sort of thing. Oh well, at least the bus wasnt loaded or anything.
Really glad the upper deck was empty, that could've been messy methinks.
[IMG]http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121205211406/ttte/images/1/1e/Bulgy%28episode%2911.png[/IMG] First thing I thought of.
reminds me of a double decker bus driving under a bridge
A bit of classic Bond anyone? [video=youtube;IuDAx4Yndv0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuDAx4Yndv0[/video] (skip to around 2m4s)
oh hey that's really near to me, i'm surprised i didn't hear about it sooner
this happened to my school bus once, at the end of the route it goes underneath a railway bridge to go back to the bus depot or whatever and the guy forgot he was driving a double decker it's just a good job that it was at the end of the route and not the start, i was at the lights at the other side of the tunnel and he made it at least half way through without noticing/stopping. would've been a real mess if it was packed with kids
Glad to hear nobody got hurt.
Almost final destination
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