Bus crashes in to a river in the Eastleigh area (26/06)

[greenline712]

On the assumption that it was a mechanical fault, I wonder whether commercial drivers have sufficient and suitable preparation for dealing with emergencies like that? Thankfully it's very rare that you get a runaway, but that makes it all the harder for the driver to deal with because it's so completely unexpected. I would like to think that if that happened to me, I would have the presence of mind to knock it into neutral or turn the engine off ... but am I confident that I would be able to think rationally and not just go into a blind panic, or freeze? Absolutely not.

Modern buses don't have gears as such ... they have push buttons for DRIVE NEUTRAL REVERSE. If the driver did experience a jammed throttle, there is little to be done other than brake heavily. Even a parking brake would not retard the bus quickly ... it is a 'parking' brake!

This incident reminds me of a Leyland National that I was driving some 45 years ago ... LNs had a semi-automatic gearbox whereby it WAS possible to deselect gears, but not immediately ... there was a delay of a few seconds before it took effect. This bus (probably 8 years old) suffered from a "racing" throttle; apparently a pin had come out in the linkage to the engine. Luckily I was driving up a slight hill, and was able to knock the gears out and stamp on the footbrake to stop the bus. It took nearly 20 seconds pulling on the emergency engine stop (at the back of the bus) to starve the engine of fuel before it stopped ... a VERY scary time!!!

Looking at the dashcam footage, it looks like the driver headed for the river as somewhere (anywhere!) to stop the bus. No driver training will include this ... how could it?

 

[Towers]

Modern buses don't have gears as such ... they have push buttons for DRIVE NEUTRAL REVERSE. If the driver did experience a jammed throttle, there is little to be done other than brake heavily. Even a parking brake would not retard the bus quickly ... it is a 'parking' brake!

There would presumably be nothing in the circumstances to prevent a driver from selecting Neutral, unless the gearbox would prevent that whilst in motion for some reason? Auto cars will generally allow it, certainly. I can’t say I’ve ever tried it in a bus!

By way of some light relief I have to say that your mention of a National with a “racing throttle” brings some interesting images to mind; some of the ‘yoof’ around here have “racing throttles” but thankfully not in Leyland Nationals!

Briefly, as it’s way off topic, an acquaintance occasionally tells a story of being a “breadvan” (minibus) driver in National Bus Company days and doing overtime on a ‘big bus’ shift with a National. Having reversed it out of a bus station bay and selected a forward gear he had a ‘moment’ and couldn’t work out why the bus wasn’t moving off despite the engine revving. He quickly remembered that this was due to the handbrake being applied, so he released it - without taking his boot off of the throttle. His passengers weren’t impressed…