7236 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Wilson’s Group, the owners of Wilson’s Transportation, confirmed it was their bus in the crash.

 

“Our immediate concern is with the passengers, the driver and their families,” said Samantha Wilson in an emailed statement. “Management is working with authorities and the University of Victoria to address those immediate concerns.”

 

 

https://www.timescol...ield-1.23946035

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 September 2019 - 10:38 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

one bystander said it took 2 hours for first responders to arrive. the weather was too rough for two cormorant helicopters dispatched to land. so some injured were taken by ambulance to port alberni before airlifted.

still unclear the extent of injuries besides the 2 dead but some reports said a school bus took 29 passengers away. so there might be as few as 8 or 10 with serious injuries.

[Mike K.]

I’m still astonished that they attempted that drive in last night’s downpour. I’ve had to make that trip from Bamfield into Alberni by night during a rain storm and it was hairy. Couldn’t see further than 20m and if you didn’t have a good awareness of that road you could easily get yourself into trouble.

[Victoria Watcher]

I suppose there will be more talk again about seatbelts on buses.

[Cats4Hire]

I suppose there will be more talk again about seatbelts on buses.

is there a reason school buses don't require them? I get city buses as people are constantly sitting down and getting up to leave, plus the people standing can't have seat belts but I can't think of a reason school buses don't other than city buses don't.

[Victoria Watcher]

this sounds more like a coach than a school bus. the reason they don’t is generally because their heavy weight means they rarely suffer from accidents where the bus is jostled too much. and they generally have competent and experienced operators so they also rarely get into crashes where the bus exits the roadway.

CBC has a comprehensive story now:

https://www.cbc.ca/n...crash-1.5283830

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 September 2019 - 02:45 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

maybe it did have seatbelts.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...ield-1.23946035

 

Forty-eight people, including the driver, were on the bus that crashed, which is owned by Wilson’s Transportation.

John Wilson, president and CEO of Wilson’s Group of Companies, said the company is “deeply saddened by the tragedy.” He said the driver, whom he described as experienced, sustained non-life threatening injuries and has been released from hospital.

Wilson’s Transportation is a charter bus company serving Victoria and Vancouver Island. It operates over 140 vehicles, according to its website.

The bus involved was a 2001 Prevost XL2, Wilson said. It had been recently inspected and met all regulatory requirements, he said, adding that the bus was equipped with seat restraints.

“The safety of our passengers, staff and everyone on the road is our No. 1 priority here at Wilson’s,” he said.

The cause of the crash is not known, he said, adding that the company is co-operating with police in their investigation.

“Wilson’s has been transporting people safely throughout Vancouver Island for over 40 years and this is the first incident of this magnitude that we have ever experienced,” Wilson said. “We are all shocked by this. Rest assured that we are doing everything in our power to assist those affected.”

 

[Victoria Watcher]

The bus involved was a 2001 Prevost XL2, Wilson said. It had been recently inspected and met all regulatory requirements, he said, adding that the bus was equipped with seat restraints.

https://www.timescol...ield-1.23946035

[Victoria Watcher]

The bus involved was a 2001 Prevost XL2, Wilson said. It had been recently inspected and met all regulatory requirements, he said, adding that the bus was equipped with seat restraints.

https://www.timescol...ield-1.23946035

[Rob Randall]

I don't know exactly where the accident happened but this section in the vicinity of the site I chose at random looks sketchy, especially if a heavy rainfall affected the road surface.

 

https://www.google.c...!7i13312!8i6656

[Victoria Watcher]

indeed the bus might have hit a washout area too.  not just a slippy surface. 

[Victoria Watcher]

The driver of the bus is "experienced" and holds "driver-training certification," according to a statement from The Wilson's Group, which owns Wilson's Transportation Ltd., whose 2001 Prevost XL2 bus was the one in the accident. The driver sustained non-life threatening injuries and has been released from the hospital, it said.

 

_________

 

Brendan McCullough, owner of Victoria-based McCullough Coach Lines, knows the challenges of the route to Bamfield. He said he no longer books charters there because he doesn't believe newer-model coaches can handle the "pitching and banging."

 

On one memorable trip in 2010 while he was driving two dozen high-school students from Edmonton to the Bamfield centre, he said heavy rains forced him to take multiple detours on the logging roads until they were eventually forced to stop for the night.

 

There was no cellular phone service to call for help, so in the morning McCullough said he used a bicycle he kept in the bus to ride several hours until he found a road construction contractor. The contractor was able to get a crew to fix the road so they could drive the bus out.

 

"It's just not a well travelled route," McCullough said.

 

 

https://www.timescol...ents-1.23946574

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 September 2019 - 05:31 PM.

[Kikadee]

In the CBC news article for 14 September, Chief Robert Dennis was quoted as saying: ‘Sometimes when you meet other traffic you are just barely able to get by each other—and in this case they weren’t able to.’ I took that to mean Dennis had knowledge that the bus had moved over for another car, as in, that happened in this case and the bus went over.

[Victoria Watcher]

yikes

[Mike K.]

Do we know the precise location of the accident?

[Mike K.]

Dennis and his wife were travelling to their home in Bamfield on Friday night when they were flagged down by another driver on the road. The driver, who was headed towards an area with cell phone reception, told them that there had been an accident about two kilometres up ahead.

“When we got there, we saw lots of lights flashing,” said Dennis. The lights belonged to the cell phones of dozens of students, who had already made it to the roadside and were helping others up with rope. Dennis and his wife stopped to assist.

“There was a little bit of unrest,” said Dennis. “One of the younger girls was crying, said she wanted to get home. You could tell they were feeling the effects of the crash. All in all, it was a scary thing to come up to.”

- https://www.alberniv...atal-bus-crash/

[Kikadee]

Yes, and based solely on my interpretation of the Dennis quote on CBC I thought that the people who went to get help were also the ones who squeezed by. But that’s just a guess.

[Mike K.]

You have to wonder if speed was a factor here.

[Victoria Watcher]

interesting.

 

also news reports say the crash was actually called in by a UVic-owned satellite phone (presumably from the crash site).

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 September 2019 - 06:18 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

there is a photo here that shows where it happened.


https://www.timescol...rash-1.23946035


looks like a curve with no concrete barrier.