大圍發生雙層巴士翻側意外,釀成1死11人受傷慘劇。
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警方新界南交通部意外調查及支援組警司林泉表示,經初步調查,涉事為九巴88K線巴士,事發時由火炭駿景園開往顯徑,車上有9女2男乘客。當巴士駛至意外地點時,懷疑行錯路,剷上路中間交界位石壆並向左翻側。警方、消防、救護接報後立即趕往救出。今次的致命交通意外中,一名37歲男乘客頭部嚴重受傷,即場證實死亡;而負責駕駛巴士58歲男司機,因受傷須送院,他涉嫌「危險駕駛導致他人死亡」被拘捕。
A double-decker bus overturned in Tai Wai, resulting in a tragedy of 1 dead and 11 injured.
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Superintendent Lin Chuen of the Accident Investigation and Support Section of the Police New Territories South Department of Transportation said that after preliminary investigation, the involved was a KMB 88K route bus, from Royal Ascot, Fo Tan to Hin Keng at the time of accident, with 9 females and 2 males on board. The bus was suspected to enter the wrong route when arrived the accident site, shoveled a rock at the middle of the junction and overturned to the left. The police, firefighting, and ambulance rushed to rescue immediately after receiving the report. In this fatal traffic accident, a 37-year-old male passenger suffered serious head injuries and was certified dead on the spot. The 58-year-old male bus driver was sent to hospital for injuries. He was arrested on suspicion of "dangerous driving causing deaths." .
I have seen operations where the driver is just assigned to a group of related routes (e.g. 1A/1B/1C/1D), and for each trip, he is told which "branch" he would operate on just before departure. Do you think this way of operation will help to reduce wrong routing?I suspect that most drivers who work multiple routes will have made errors at some point, to judge from discussions in the canteen at grey green virtually all went the wrong way at some time when driving route 24 or 168, the two routes went the same way for around a mile then divided, and were both operated by the same fleet.
Do you have any first-hand accounts of this service making a detour, or is this simply based on tracking data?I have just been made aware of this Preston Bus service making a rather spectacular detour:
It has not only completely missed its terminus but has also managed to double back on itself through the next estate, missing a key interchange point on its route back into the bus station. It also seems to have lost 40 minutes going between 2 bus stops however the inbound timings seem to be confused.
I've heard of Preston Bus services taking one wrong turn or missing turnoffs shortly after route changes/thinking the service is operating a different route but no service has ever made some of the wrong turns that this one has.
One would presume this driver to expect questioning on their return...
This 44 has also managed to end up off route, down an old diversion that has not been used in some time:
Edit: it has partially happened again when the 31 has come inbound on its next journey
I went down after the first 31 took such a diversion, so I have seen the second incident first hand.Do you have any first-hand accounts of this service making a detour, or is this simply based on tracking data?
I suspect this may be a rather tall tale, but a driver I knew at Halifax spoke of being sent out on the 562 under similar circumstances with a minibus. Having crossed into some unknown part Greater Manchester he asked the two ladies on board if they knew the way, to which they said yes. His suspicions were raised when he ended up in a residential road which didn't seem to be on route, at which point they asked to get off as they lived there. He did a three-point turn as well. Right over her lawn.In the 90s, on the now long-gone 562 Halifax to Oldham service, First Manchester took over half the Sunday journeys from First Calderdale (eventually it came to be largely run by them). First Manchester didn't seem to have heard of route training and regularly sent out drivers with just a list of roads they should go along. Often they'd approach King Cross and instead of a left turn to serve the centre (and the stop I usually got off at on a Sunday morning), they went flying straight along the bypass, missing out 2 stops.
Even worse, between trips on the 562, the same bus and driver did a short run Halifax - Commons on the old 561. Several drivers got lost trying to find this hamlet. I once directed a driver who, when I was getting off the bus at Ripponden, asked if I knew where he was supposed to go. I offered to accompany him to the terminus and back.
As the roads got narrower, he asked me 4 times if I was sure that was the route, until we got to the terminus and I explained to the incredulous driver that this was where he did a 3-point turn.
Sounds like a very unusual destinationWhen the 298 used to terminate at South Mimms about 20 years ago, there was one morning when the driver forgot to turn left at South Mimms and was carrying on towards London Colney. Another time, the bus failed to turn into the South Mimms bus terminus. The road after that is a narrow Lane with a dead end in a farmyard, so that is where we alighted!
Things like this, while appearing comical, can turn deadly e.g. more than one bridge strike has been due to the bus being somewhere it wasn't meant to be.Some years ago a driver at a Doncaster independent was rostered to do a particular school run that they did not know. The instructions they were given was to "go to X stop in Y, and pick up the first kids, ask them the route".
Some time later, the office called to ask where they were, "heading up the A1, apparently this is the route". I don't think they saw the funny side.