where not to park your bus

dave351cid · 25-03-2012, 01:23 AM

we had to use a chopper to go fix some power lines yesterday and this is what we found on the road that links the Bundaberg/Agnes Water road with the Bruce Highway about 10km out of Miriam Vale.

story i have heard is that the driver stopped when they came to water over the road and decided to wait for water to go down. turned off the lights and i guess everyone tried to get some sleep. its a late night bus. turned the lights on after some time to check water level only to find themselves surounded with rising water coming up the bus. a local farmer rescued the driver and passengers with a boat. the bus is acctually parked on a rise between 2 gullys.
this section of road is well known for flooding and the road had already been closed since the night before when we had about 180mm of rain before another up to 200mm the second night.

if you look at the first photo, the bus is about where you can see the rain falling near the center of the pic, and the road is under water for about 3km in front of it.

Jim Goose · 25-03-2012, 08:56 AM

And the moral of the story is!!!!!????

XR6Naranja · 25-03-2012, 09:03 AM

Lets hope Premier Motor Service does an expert job on the now water ridden engine.

**ebxr8240** · 25-03-2012, 09:12 AM

Basically and oil change will fix any water issues..
Clear water from induction if any..
If some fool hasn't tried to start it before !!!

outback_ute · 25-03-2012, 05:21 PM

I was talking to a guy a few years ago who drove tour buses in central Australia before you had ECU's running diesel engines, in a few cases they were cut off by flood waters and would take all luggage out of the bins, leave the doors open and tarp the rear of the coach then reverse through water up to 5-6' deep. Now the ECU's near the entry door spoil that idea

new2ford · 25-03-2012, 10:54 PM

Are you sure this happened yesterday and not 2010?

http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/...y-floodwaters/

Surely Premier wouldn't make the same mistake twice?

dave351cid · 25-03-2012, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by new2ford

Are you sure this happened yesterday and not 2010?

http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/...y-floodwaters/

Surely Premier wouldn't make the same mistake twice?

ummmm... yep.

i took those photos myself friday before lunch.

a bit more water around this time, the bus in that link made it through this section and got stuck about a hundred metres from coming out of the flood zone.
so i am guessing there are going to be some serious questions asked at head office this week.

SPArKy_Dave · 25-03-2012, 11:37 PM

Like a Bus..........

dave351cid · 25-03-2012, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

And the moral of the story is!!!!!????

dont drive a bus full of passengers into a closed road and park it in a well known flood area i guess.

new2ford · 25-03-2012, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave351cid

so i am guessing there are going to be some serious questions asked at head office this week.

Perhaps they'll consider going into the shipping business since they don't seem to be having much luck going through water with buses!

Mickxr8 · 26-03-2012, 01:52 AM

In this day of new /instant comms etc how could the driver not see this coming ? , Luckily no one was hurt btw. buses do have reverse gear and people behind a bus tend to pay a bit of attention when those lights come on ?

LTDHO · 26-03-2012, 06:40 AM

This is the first time I have seen someone try and wait it out, I have seen people try and make it, on to realise the water got deaper.

05_ENFORCER · 26-03-2012, 11:20 AM

That's Premiers new Aqua Bus prototype

But seriously guys, twice in two years??????

.

Feathers · 26-03-2012, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickxr8

buses do have reverse gear and people behind a bus tend to pay a bit of attention when those lights come on ?

You'd think so, but no. They only notice enough to blast the horn at you for being in their way.

flappist · 26-03-2012, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mickxr8

In this day of new /instant comms etc how could the driver not see this coming ? , Luckily no one was hurt btw. buses do have reverse gear and people behind a bus tend to pay a bit of attention when those lights come on ?

In the same way that all the people who have had their cars drowned in car parks in the last 12 months.

You really have no idea just how quickly and randomly this has been happening up here. I have seen roads under 3 feet of water that 2 hours before were dry, not unflooded but actually DRY and then were clear 6 hours after that.
That micro cell that totally flattened Glenwood and flooded Maryborough a couple of weeks ago was so localised that while Maryborough, 20km from here, was being inundated and houses going under we had half blue sky and sunshine.

dave351cid · 26-03-2012, 11:44 PM

[QUOTE=Mickxr8]. buses do have reverse gear and people behind a bus tend to pay a bit of attention when those lights come on ?[/QUOTE]

no problem with reversing into someone here that night, the road had been closed for about 24 hours already, there was nobody else using it

... LTDHO ...This is the first time I have seen someone try and wait it out, I have seen people try and make it, on to realise the water got deaper.yep. you have to atleast give points to the driver for stopping with the intent to wait for the water to go down . the previous one pushed on through the floods untill he drowned the engine in the middle of a lake.

.... flappist ... In the same way that all the people who have had their cars drowned in car parks in the last 12 months.

You really have no idea just how quickly and randomly this has been happening up here. I have seen roads under 3 feet of water that 2 hours before were dry,

true. this rain was way more then anyone expected. the cell was travelling down the coast fairly quick and it was thought we would get a couple of inchs and it would be gone. the cell seemed to get between gladstone and agnes waters and got stuck dumping 7 and a half inches in about 5 hours.
that was the first night that originally closed the road.
next night there was no great threat of heavy rain. 1mm to 5mm forcast. in town here we had 54mm , in the surounding hill country there are reports of somewhere over 300mm in a few hours. that was the night he made the mistake of driving past the road closed signs to see if he could get through.

about 4 years ago i was on the same road about lunch time and stopped to talk to the local cop at the creek about 1 km behind where the bus stopped , i was just about to take off and drive across the culvet ( had a couple of inchs of water over the road) when a 1 metre wall of water rushed through taking the fences, tore away the road surface in large sheets and left a tree laying across the roadway. 1 minute later and i would have been in the middle.