If you’ve got a beef with another poster, you’ve been around long enough to know where to go with that. You’re free to disagree with someone on the topic at hand, but you’re hijacking the thread with this. Drop it.
It would be nice to know what the speed of traffic was for the bus and the slower traffic it hit. In the video I don’t see a reason for such a disparity between the two but that could be because the destruction caused by the bus made it look greater than it was.
I think that stopping to help is a very personal choice. Some folks are too freaked out by blood and guts to render any meaningful hep and may actually hinder help before emergency responders get there.
A few years ago a horrible motorcycle accident happened in front of me. I stopped and held the hand of the young man and talked to him calmly (he was conscious, but horribly injured – people, wear helmets!!). He died before the ambulance arrived; I couldn’t offer any meaningful medical help (he was beyond CPR and I didn’t want to move him), but he was conscious and he didn’t die alone.
I was, of course, very sad for a while but I know people who would be freaked out for a very long time if they stopped to aid at a gruesome accident. I personally see it as a moral responsibility to hang around until emergency services arrives, but not everyone is capable of doing so.
Re: the video. The folks in front of the crash had a good chance of causing more mayhem if they screeched off on the shoulder or tried to flip a U-turn across two lanes.
Also, as my retired paramedic wife always sez: once emergency services are on site, get the f**k outta there, you’re just in the way.
What?? How does him switching lanes lead to anything the bus driver did? If anything, by leaving the lane the bus was in he created more room between the bus and other cars and slightly delayed the accident.
Delaying the accident time frame is irrelevant in relation to itself. If you hit a tree at 2AM or 2 am and 2 seconds nothing changes. In this case without a change in speed the accident is delayed 2 seconds. If the bus driver was alerted then those 2 seconds may have made a big difference.
Had the driver with the camera flashed his brakes rapidly while the bus was much further back he MAY have alerted the bus driver and completely negated the accident. There’s no way of knowing but it’s good practice. I’m not sure if this is part of the training for a CDL but you certainly have seen truckers turn their flashers on when traffic ahead of them has slowed down. It’s to alert traffic behind them to slow down. I’ve seen cars do this but not nearly as often.
I was on a divided highway last night at 1am with my motorcycle and was confronted with a driver going the wrong way. I was in the left lane trailing a car in the right lane so I could extend my view of the road using his headlights ahead of mine (hitting debris on the road at night can ruin your evening). It was probably why I was slow on the uptake and changed lanes a bit later than I would have liked but I got out of the oncoming car’s way with a comfortable margin. I couldn’t hear if the car in the right lane honked his horn but I sure as hell did after changing lanes. The driver on the wrong side of the highway immediately put on his turn signals so he had to realize at that point he was going the wrong way. He had to have passed at least one other car in the process so I think honking my horn was enough to bring the driver around to his mistake. I have no way of proving it but it was immediately after passing me when the turn signal went on.
What changing lanes could have done was provide more room for the bus to change lanes had he realized what was going on. So there’s that.
That bus driver was in a much higher position and should have easily seen over the car ahead to the stationary traffic. The bus driver was apparently not looking, and seems to have made no attempt to slow down or avoid the accident.
You’re right He could see over the top of the car(s) in front of him. But given that he was maintaining his lane I think it more likely he was drowsy and not fully aware. Surely you’ve seen truckers driving back and forth on the shoulder before? They’re not asleep but they’re not wide awake either.
According to the description, the bus driver was asleep at the wheel, so the car driver ahead changing lanes (whom an awake bus driver should have easily been able to see over) wouldn’t have made any difference.
Plus, there’s no indication that the bus driver is asleep or distracted until the crash, so why would the car driver ahead think there was any need to alert the bus of traffic that was plainly visible to the bus’s elevated position? And why the assumption that the car driver didn’t in fact tap their brakes?
Because the bus is moving too fast for traffic in the video with no signs of slowing down.
And as an observation the sound you hear on the video are rub strips. Not sure why they’re located before and in the tunnel but you can seem them on camera.
I totally agree that when qualified responders/EMTs/911 etc arrive, there’s no reason for anyone else to be there. Short of being a medical professional (or even better a doctor trained in emergency medicine) there’s very little you can do to help. They went to school for this, they can block traffic just fine. I recall one time that I was first on the scene of a really bad motorcycle accident. A nurse asked if we wanted her help, of course we said yes. She took one look at him and said ‘sorry, can’t touch him, if he has a neck/spine injury I could make it worse’ (he wasn’t going to bleed out or anything at the time).
Having said that, I’ve been first on the scene or seen accidents a number of times and I’m always amazed at how many people will just stand and stare. Even if you’re not going to do anything, you can at least go and make sure everyone is okay, you could call 911. Also, one thing my dad taught me is that you should always (assuming it’s safe) shut the car off. Immediately after an accident, especially if the person is passed out, the car is nearly always running and more often than not, often still in gear. Usually the only thing keeping it from taking off is the fact that it’s up against another vehicle*.
I recall an accident several years ago right in front of my store. I was working on the roof and even with all the bystanders gawking, I still managed to get down from the roof, go out the street, ask if anyone had checked on the drivers yet (they hadn’t), and went and checked on them myself, as well as shutting off the car of the person that appeared to be passed out (or in a daze or possibly just faking it to process the situation, it was his fault, his car spun multiple times and IIRC, when it was done and over with he ended up in the passenger seat). Just a simple reaching in the window and shutting off the cars as well as quick ‘HEY, HEY, are you okay’ and getting an ‘I think so’ makes me feel better than seeing blood or a missing limb. I was also the only person to call 911. And, again, there were multiple people just standing there looking.
Regarding just standing there like dolt and not even calling 911. There’s the obvious that if you don’t call them, they don’t know it happened, but also people driving by might assume the bystanders called and even if they call, they’re not going to know the situation. Also, when I call (as someone standing there), I’m much better able to report to the dispatcher how many injuries, about how bad (in my very unprofessional opinion), are people ‘fine’/awake/lucid/talking/moving, knocked out or somewhere in between. Also, there’s been a few times where I’ve even called back to mention that gas/coolant is leaking from one of the vehicles which means they’ll bring a fire truck out as well hose down the road.
*Quite a while back a really, really drunk person (.27 I think) smashed into the back of my dad’s parked car. When he went out there, he said her tires were spinning on the pavement, she still had her foot pushed down on the accelerator as hard as she did when she slammed into his car.
TL;DR, I can’t speak to the legality. Once the EMTs arrive, yes you should leave (unless, I suppose, they ask you to stay and assist), however, if you can safely go check on everyone involved, I see no problem with that and I always suggest shutting off the car if at all possible, you don’t want it taking off and hitting something else.
Also, come to think of it, while again I don’t know about the legality…personally, if you’re driving, I don’t have an ethical issue with just continuing on your way. If you’re standing there and not in such a panic that you can’t think straight…at least call 911 and get them moving.