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ACCIDENTS
On this and another site there has recently been discussions about accidents. The recent one on another board involved a fatality and although the car involved was a Honda Civic the bus was totaled. This is the link to that one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeQuNudINSQ
In that case a dash cam revealed what happened and from the looks the driver of the coach had no opportunity to avoid the accident.
Some accidents are unavoidable. Some are avoidable and we can have a great deal to do with that. Make sure the coach is in the best shape possible, especially the steering and brakes. Make sure we drive with no distractions. Put all the phones turned off in a drawer in the bedroom. Don’t mess with the GPS or radio or anything else when the coach is moving. Keep in mind the fact we cannot stop like a car can stop so adjust your driving accordingly. The bottom line however is once we do all we can do the only way to avoid accidents is to have luck.
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26 Replies
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Was going to comment on Jon’s thread about accident, and on reply to his post it gave me a new thread?
Anyway, I was going to ask if anyone knew which bus was in the accident. I would guess the car driver was on the phone or texting. Looks like he/she realized what was happening at the last minute when it was too late.
I am also curious about the damage to the bus. The newer Cowboy’s bus T-boned a van in Arizona a while ago, and from the pictures (from far off) it did not look like major damage to the bus, and it is now back in service.
P.S. I guess the reply works as it should!
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Looks to us the bus rolled. They aren’t meant to go their sides.
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The bus was a GM 4104 or 4106. At impact the car severley damaged the left front wheel area rendering the steering in-op. It also took out the brakes so when you see the coach veer hard left it was because the driver could no longer steer it or stop it.
When it hit the soft shoulder the front left wheel was just turned hard left and the front was low so the coach dug into the grass stopping it at which point the windshield popped out which gives the impression the bus rolled. It did not and it remained upright.
The damage would total the coach because the insurance company would value the coach less than the needed repairs.
Does any one think they would be able to push the button and turn on the retarder or Jake (Per)? I doubt if the driver even had the opportunity to react and apply the brake. The bus speed at impact was 53. The car driver perished.
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I’m going to try to post a photo that the bus owner put up on the BCM board.
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The bus owner also posted this:
“I did a lot of thinking last night about what I could have done differently. I questioned whether I could have braked harder, but the shoulder was soft with a ditch/ravine beyond it. I didn’t want to lose control by locking the wheels and then heading into the ravine.
I thought that I should have been able to keep in a straight line after impact. But in reality the steering linkage was torn away on impact and I was holding a useless steering wheel after that.
The bus seemed to take too long to come to a stop after impact. Did I not brake hard enough? Apparently the air system was shredded on impact and we had no brakes anyhow. I could have pulled the handbrake, but I was focused on steering us towards the flattest part of the ravine and away from the house. I didn’t know the steering wheel was not connected to anything.
The impact did a lot of damage to the corner of the bus. Had that been the only damage it might be repairable. But, when we got to the uphill side of the ravine the nose of the bus caught the earth and pulled the front of the bus down. the nose has dropped a few inches with a crease across the roof from driver’s window to entry door. The side of the bus looks like an aluminum can which has been twisted/crushed with ripples all the way down. There are rivets popped out that we can see. I’m sure there are many we can’t. It’s unlikely that the bus can be repaired without exceeding value, and even if it could I would never feel safe driving it again.
I’ve been a ‘belt and suspenders’ kind of person for a long time. Good thing, as all the safety precautions seemed to have helped hold things together. The newly mounted generator stayed put, the black tank held solid, the batteries stayed under their straps, and all the interior items stayed put other than some paperwork and lightweight cups, etc. The new seat belts kept us in our seats, and I was able to do a normal shutdown procedure from the driver’s seat – mostly on autopilot at that point since I don’t remember it. We had to exit from the sliding Peninsula window since we could not open the door from the inside. I wanted us away in case of fire, but the fuel and electrical systems appear to have remained intact.”
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Thanks Kirby (or Linda).
The coach was on its first trip after the owner completed the conversion and he put the dash cam in just before the trip.
It does not take much damage to create enough repair cost to cause an insurance company to treat the repairs as in excess of insured value
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That video was really something and something none of us would ever want to see first hand! I can’t help but even consider what the results could have been were they not driving a Prevost?
Anyone know what year the bus is?
Thanks Kirby and Linda for the information, how did you happen to come by it?
Harry
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Driver of bus in accident wrote: Apparently the air system was shredded on impact and we had no brakes anyhow
This is eye opening. Apparently the front brakes and the rear brakes are tied together on the same air system. No dual master like on most race cars and most passenger cars and light trucks.
But doesn’t the bus use air pressure to hold the brake shoes away from the drums? When we apply the service brakes aren’t we “releasing air” by pressing the brake pedal which allows the brake shoes to contact the drums slowing the bus down? So if the air lines are destroyed, wouldn’t the brakes lock up because the pressure of the springs pushing the Brake Shoes against the drums? Or do I have a mis-understanding of how the brake system works.
I don’t like having the Parking Brake behind me. In this case, had the driver pulled the Parking Brake wouldn’t the rear drive wheels have locked up?
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Yes Dick, the part of the brake system you are misunderstanding has to do with the service brakes. When you push the service brake pedal, air pressure is being introduced to the brake chamber that acts on the slack adjuster which in turn acts on the brake caliper that pushes the friction material against the rotor. So you need air pressure to have service brakes. The parking brake is the opposite, which you do understand. Setting the parking brake releases air pressure allowing the spring brake to clamp onto the drum/rotor.
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I don’t know about the old 4104, but Prevosts like ours have a primary and secondary brake system separated from the wet tank with check valves.
There is actually a test where we dump air from one tank with a remote solenoid and test stopping distances. The driver presses the brake pedal as soon as the low air warning comes on. As the primary system loses air (drive and tag on the bus), the parking brake applies with spring force. No parking brake on the steer axle.
If you have a major leak on one system, the compressor probably won’t be able to replenish the tank on the good system. So you only have what made it past the check valve prior to the failure.
If you are interested, you can look at the air brake system on prevostcar.com under tools, air schematics. Make sure you’re sitting down! Hold control and scroll up to make it legible.
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I feel for the driver who, perished, but glad the bus driver and passenger were apparently not (seriously?) hurt.
Jon, from what the video shows, the Jake or retarder would have done nothing to prevent the accident, no matter what the driver did. The Jake takes longer to engage than the timeframe from seeing the car in your lane to impact. With more time, my way is safer–once the Jake is on, I don’t have to worry about downshifting. But emergency response relies on service brakes, not the Jake or retarder.
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I cannot understand the braking system on the GM coach and maybe Kirby could help us understand if it was possible for it to lose all braking if the system was damaged in the front.
However on a properly working Prevost system if the brake system loses pressure below about 45 PSI the emergency brake springs will apply the brakes on the axle(s) equipped with the service/parking brake combo.
The braking system has protection against one part of it losing air causing the other part to drain. We demonstrate this in the seminars to verify the protection and check valves are functioning so a loss of air in the primary system is not a loss of air in the secondary.
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Don’t expect the emergency spring brake to lock up the rear wheels, it won’t, but will eventually stop you.
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In Kirby and Linda’s information was the statement “We had to exit from the sliding Peninsula window since we could not open the door from the inside”!
What do you guys use to help you “Exit” from a window? Some of us are relatively spry while others are less so. How have you address it?
Harry
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Raises hand. Harry, I got this one, go to Home Depot and buy one of those fire escape ladders for $35. Keep it under the bed, don’t care how spry a person is, if you want out bad enough you can make it work.
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