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CT Transit (NBT) bus crash

 
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Bill D




Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 332
Location: Waterbury, CT

PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2012 4:47 pm    Post subject: CT Transit (NBT) bus crash Reply with quote

PLAINVILLE, CT (WFSB) -

Five people were taken to the hospital involving a CT Transit bus crash in Plainville on Wednesday morning.

The first accident happened in at Woodford and Crooked Street.

Plainville police said the vehicle, driven by Joann Dean of Beacon Falls, turned right on red at the intersection in front of the bus.

The CT Transit bus crashed into the back of the car driven by Dean, who was not injured and was cited for the red light violation.

Passengers on board the bus were taken to New Britain General Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

When that accident was cleared, a wrecker was towing the bus away but the driver realized the bus was too heavy so he unloaded the bus from his wrecker.

But because the bus was parked in neutral gear and the chock blocks were not strong enough to hold it, it rolled down the street hitting a pick-up truck driven by Albert Paradis of Plainville and a Volvo driven by Jennifer Sklenka of Bristol.

Both Paradis and Sklenka were transported to New Britain General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Police said the driver of the bus, David Pizzo, never set the brakes on the transit bus before he exited it, so when the wrecker operator let the bus down it rolled forward.

He's been cited for failure to set brakes on a highway.

Link to story here: http://www.wfsb.com/story/18240369/transit-bus-vehicle-crash-in-plainville
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Bill D




Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 332
Location: Waterbury, CT

PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2012 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Something about this doesn't make sense to me. The incident with the bus rolling happened at least a half hour after the initial accident. The wrecker in the picture looks to be of sufficient size to tow this bus, as our buses are towed by similar sized wreckers. If the bus was actually hooked to the wrecker and then disconnected, I feel that the wrecker operator should have been responsible for securing the bus. I have to question who chocked the wheels and why, and if the bus driver actually did set the parking brake or not, and what were the actions of the wrecker operator. Hopefully more facts will be released.

Bill


Last edited by Bill D on Wed May 09, 2012 7:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
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RailBus63
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Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 1063

PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2012 7:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree there is something strange here. I understand that being involved in an accident is a startling experience, but I would think it would be second nature to set the parking brake when exiting the driver's compartment. I suspect the writer thinks there is a Park setting on the transmission.
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JimmiB



Age: 81
Joined: 19 Apr 2011
Posts: 516
Location: Lebanon, PA

PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2012 10:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A couple of things aren't right with the story. When I worked for Lebanon Coach and Bus Co's, the county bought a Chevy single rear axle tow truck with a Holmes 600 wrecker body from SEPTA. I used this several times to tow 4512's and other buses with no problem. Also, the truck operator certainly wasn't going to tow it with the parking brakes on!
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Bill D




Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 332
Location: Waterbury, CT

PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2012 6:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I suspect that the wrecker operator was unable to get under the front axle to lift the bus. When our low floors are towed we generally have to lift the bus up and place blocks under the front wheels in order to have clearance for the wrecker to extend the underlift arm to pick the bus up. The video shows the wrecker picking the rear of the bus up after the second accident. New Flyer recommends that low floor buses not be towed in this manner.

Also updated reports indicated that a bus company supervisor, not the bus operator, was charged with failure set set the parking brake.

Bill
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RailBus63
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Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 1063

PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2012 9:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That makes more sense that it was a supervisor involved in the towing procedure and not the driver.

The improper towing doesn't say much for NBT, though. Even if you have to hire a wrecker, you should take responsibility to make sure they follow the manufacturer's recommendations. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given how they were somehow about to run what should have been a sturdy fleet of RTS buses into the ground prior to the New Flyers arriving.
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Bill D




Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 332
Location: Waterbury, CT

PostPosted: Sat May 12, 2012 3:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RailBus63 wrote:
That makes more sense that it was a supervisor involved in the towing procedure and not the driver.

The improper towing doesn't say much for NBT, though. Even if you have to hire a wrecker, you should take responsibility to make sure they follow the manufacturer's recommendations. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given how they were somehow about to run what should have been a sturdy fleet of RTS buses into the ground prior to the New Flyers arriving.


Agreed Jim! When we received our first low floors in 2004, we brought in our towing companies and went over the procedures for handling these buses. We have not experienced any problems with buses being towed. And not setting the parking brake is inexcusable, regardless of who was responsible.

Bill
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BZGuy



Age: 42
Joined: 14 Nov 2011
Posts: 9
Location: New York,NY

PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2012 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RailBus63 wrote:
That makes more sense that it was a supervisor involved in the towing procedure and not the driver.

The improper towing doesn't say much for NBT, though. Even if you have to hire a wrecker, you should take responsibility to make sure they follow the manufacturer's recommendations. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given how they were somehow about to run what should have been a sturdy fleet of RTS buses into the ground prior to the New Flyers arriving.


You have to understand the culture of NBT to understand how BS like this happens. NBT is a school bus company trying to run a transit division. The transit side of the house has never really been the priority. I worked for NBT in Berlin, working both school bus and transit. We had god knows how many mechanics for school bus but only two for transit, on an aging fleet that wasn't taken care of properly from the beginning.

Once the bulkheads started going on the RTSs (I had one go on me, in B145.....almost gave me a heart attack!) things really went down hill with the state pulling the 94 New Flyers outta the reserve fleet so we could make service. I went down to New Haven to bring up the first four we had....it was such a pitiful day, we only had 3 or 4 buses ready for AM pullouts. Things even got so bad that they bought those RTSs from HART and only 1 of them actually made it on the line. It was too the point that we were using the activity buses...even school buses just to make the service. I left because things were getting to the point that I wasn't gonna risk my CDL for the company.

I miss the drivers and the passengers and just driving transit. I should have gone to North East in Waterbury....that's one private company that knows what their doing.
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