Bus crash, passengers trapped

[DaveC]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-109566-21-.htm#109566

She says the bus ended up in the ditch, laying partially on its side. The door to the passenger side door of the bus was unable to open, meaning everyone was stuck inside until help arrived.

<stuff deleted>

When emergency personnel finally arrived two hours later they had to cut out the windows and build a ramp for passengers to get out.

“They had to saw off the front of the bus. There was no way of getting out, we were completely stuck. We weren’t in any imminent danger, but we couldn’t get out.”

Um, Excuse me? Isn't every window on a bus an emergency exit? WTH?

Also:

“(The driver) said he had no way of contacting anyone. So he basically just sat there and waited for someone to drive by, and then that person drove ahead until they had service and called 911.”

Ok so cell phones and radios aren't too great in the mountains, but isn't it reasonable to have a check-in schedule? If the driver fails to report in then someone goes looking for the bus. Hell I do that with a friend every time I drive through the mountains! You'd think a professional organisation would have that figured out by now.

Not too impressed with Greyhound right now.

[Bsuds]

Ok so cell phones and radios aren't too great in the mountains, but isn't it reasonable to have a check-in schedule? If the driver fails to report in then someone goes looking for the bus. Hell I do that with a friend every time I drive through the mountains! You'd think a professional organisation would have that figured out by now.

Not too impressed with Greyhound right now.

From the story

"“This other charter, it wasn’t a Greyhound bus, and just our luck it didn’t have a radio or anything on it,” explained Siemens.

“(The driver) said he had no way of contacting anyone. So he basically just sat there and waited for someone to drive by, and then that person drove ahead until they had service and called 911.” "

[fluffy]

I'm thinking that the reason a bus like that was even on Hwy 5A at all was due to a closure on the connector. If that was the case then he may not have been overdue yet.

[grammafreddy]

Seriously - no emergency exit at all?

[Tony]

Uhmmmm.. what about the semi that they swerved to avoid? Couldn't he have called it in? Me thinks there's something fishy here.

[canuck500]

The bus would have had roof top and window escape exits, it's a castanet story short of facts as usual,

[Tony]

Not to mention that the latest story has an empty Shriner bus arriving ten minutes after the bus slid off the road, and yet it took 2 hours to get the rescue workers there?

Something's off about this story.......

[DaveC]

Ya lots of conflicting and confusing info.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!