acceptme:
My thoughts go out to all the families who are effected by this. Having grown up in belgium my first thoughts were i hope it wasnt one of our old school busses… Its not but Rip to all the kids and condolences to their familys. thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne … crash.html
Terrible, just terrible. That’s all.
the only thing that needs to be changed is the design of the tunnel.
surely that wall was an accident waiting to happen
May their Gods be with them,and the adults involved.
Sometimes make you wonder whether you should wrap them up in cotton wool■■?,or just let fate/destiny take its course.
Couldn`t imagine to feel what the parents went through getting a late night/early morning call.Horrible,horrible,horrible.No amount of blame,repercussions or anything will ever get the families over this.
A knee jerk reaction is not what’s needed here (I.E. Speed reduction)
What is needed is tough action on passengers who wont wear seat belts. I’m willing to bet most of those kids who survived were wearing them… Kids need to realise it’s no joke when they’re being told to put them on, it’s as simple as that really
commonrail:
the only thing that needs to be changed is the design of the tunnel.
surely that wall was an accident waiting to happen
Thats what I feel, even if the Coach had simply clipped and scraped against the tunnel walls, seat belts or not there would have still have been some injuries. But for there to be a solid structure at right angles to the traffic flow waiting for a vehicle to slam headlong into it is surprisingly bad design, especially for the Swiss.
This is awful news, my heart goes out to all involved.
Natasha Merat of the Institute for Transport Studies,has just said,on Sky news,to my disbelief.
That in relation to the British coach driver involved in the bad accident a few weeks ago,that she was flabbergasted that he was allowed to drive at 3am!“When,if theyve had a glass of wine,they wouldnt be allowed”.
Experts?
[zb] GIMPS.
commonrail:
the only thing that needs to be changed is the design of the tunnel.
surely that wall was an accident waiting to happen
^+ 1
Horrific images. I don’t think reducing speed limits would have helped in this situation. As has been mentioned the design of the tunnel and lack of deflectors against a flat edge made things so much worse. Another 100 metres back or further ahead and this would have been quite a different story.
Question for coach drivers … Are you allowed to refuse to drive if passengers are not seat belted in and if so, is it remotely enforceable?
As to Natasha Merats comments. Not seen sky news, but quite incredible for someone involved in the transport industry.
Also, can’t help noticing on news reports that the tunnel is ‘one of the safest’ and the the coach must have been travelling at ‘incredible’ speed to cause the extreme damage.
Now I know there is no way of knowing what went wrong at the time, but it just seems that whenever a tragedy like this occurs, the reporters seem to be desperate to apply blame to the driver. Either driving too fast, or tired or under the influence of drink or drugs.
Not seen a single news report that has hinted that having a concrete wall sticking out from the side of a tunnel could be a dangerous thing.
Squiddy:
Question for coach drivers … Are you allowed to refuse to drive if passengers are not seat belted in and if so, is it remotely enforceable?
When on a school trip I used to get the teachers to do periodical cabin walks during the journey to check belts. Thing is you know that the second the adult has sat down the kids remove the belts. You can insist on belts but to be honest it’s un-enforceable especially as most teachers are lazy cretins who think thier job on the coach is to sit at the front talking about facebook etc for the whole journey and never once turn round to supervise the kids.
Squiddy:
As to Natasha Merats comments.
She wants boiling.
Squiddy:
Question for coach drivers … Are you allowed to refuse to drive if passengers are not seat belted in and if so, is it remotely enforceable?
Yes they can and I’ve worked with drivers that have but in reality they can just take them off once moving. Legally it’s unenforceable. But in this case they could have all been wearing belts and the death toll would probably still have been shockingly high.
AndyH71:
most teachers are lazy cretins who think thier job on the coach is to sit at the front talking about facebook etc for the whole journey and never once turn round to supervise the kids.
Spot on
This is a Very sad and tragic event
The news report in the sun seems to suggest that the coach was speeding at the time of the accident but then again i dont tend to belive what i read in that.
Presumably the tachograph would show the true vehicle speed at the time of the accident, Could have been a runaway acceperation, although very rare its not unhead of on drive by wire systems or a stearing failiure, I guess the coach is being pulled apart and examined as we speak
Carryfast:
commonrail:
the only thing that needs to be changed is the design of the tunnel.
surely that wall was an accident waiting to happen^+ 1
+2
Surely if there’s a lesson to be learned from this tragic accident it’s that you should not have a big flat wall for vehicles to hit head-on, especially on fast roads.
If that wall was built at an angle, or substantial crash barriers were there to divert a vehicle this accident wouldn’t have been as bad as it was.
I don’t think speed is a factor in many coach crashes. When I started driving coaches, we were doing 70 (70+ some), in lane three, no speed limiters, no digi-tachos, no VOSA patrols, no ABS,ESP,ASR, no seat-belts and they were, as now, one of the safest forms of transport. Reducing coach speeds will just create more bunching, which is a problem now. Driver error, is usually the cause, and we have all been involved in an incident, that without luck, could have been much worse that it was. Very sad news, but knee jerk reactions is not the answer when none of us know the facts. 
Just think a few hundred quid spent on motorway barriers to deflect would have saved all those young lifes 
A genuinely terrible thing.
heartbreaking to think of all them kiddies losing their lives,