Luas Crash, O'Connell Street.

carlmango11

Who wants to get the ball rolling on conspiracy theories?

IzzyWizzy

Messed Up Mind wrote: »

I think you must have misinterpreted my post. What I meant was that the Garda car got away unscathed although it may have been the catalyst of the accident while three people were left with serious injuries on both the bus and luas. Other people have mentioned this on other threads regarding this matter.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=62142572#post62142572

I also got from your post that it was somehow the fault of the Gardai that the bus driver followed them. 'Scot free' is not the same as 'unscathed.'

AnonoBoy

Messed Up Mind wrote: »

I think you must have misinterpreted my post. What I meant was that the Garda car got away unscathed although it may have been the catalyst of the accident while three people were left with serious injuries on both the bus and luas. Other people have mentioned this on other threads regarding this matter.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=62142572#post62142572

I disagree. If a Garda car went through the lights and the bus had swerved to avoid it and hit the LUAS then it would be the catalyst. However if a Garda car went through and then the bus driver thought he'd take a chance and skip through the lights with it then it's the driver's fault. The Gardai and Emergency Services are entitled to break lights in an emergency - other vehicles are not.

Please note I'm using IF here.

Jip

The whole garda car thing is laughable. Someone said the bus went through the light with the garda car because the driver thought it was safe to do so, WTF ? The ultimate responsibility is the bus driver, unless a member of the gardai jumped out of the speeding car, somersaulted into the bus and held a gun to the bus drivers head and forced him to drive through a red light.

I.S.T.

Relevant wrote: »

The gardai were attending an emergency I would assume. From your account of events the bus followed the gardai through a red light. The gardai are entitled to break red lights if the situation requires it. I do not see how this takes away from potentially being the responsibility of the bus driver

Another poster said the Gardaí were going in the direction of Jervis Street, which sounds like they crossed the path of the bus, i.e. they were not travelling up O'Connell street but crossed O'Connell Street and went down Abbey Street. If this is the case then the bus did not follow the garda car through a red light.

aassddff

The Garda car probably moved a bit faster than the bus. Hard to blame this on the Garda

Mister Sifter

I noticed on the way past this morning that there is a Luas sitting on Abbey Street (to the east of O'Connell Street). I take it that is the one which was hit yesterday? I take it was just moved there last night during the clear up?

AnonoBoy

Mister Sifter wrote: »

I noticed on the way past this morning that there is a Luas sitting on Abbey Street (to the east of O'Connell Street). I take it that is the one which was hit yesterday? I take it was just moved there last night during the clear up?

I don't think so. Heard on the radio they drove the remains of the hit LUAS back to the Red Cow storage area. Think that was just a spare LUAS that they were going to drive to Smithfield and use later on.

Posy

Jip wrote: »

a member of the gardai jumped out of the speeding car, somersaulted into the bus and held a gun to the bus drivers head and forced him to drive through a red light.

Oh my God, so that's what happened?! :eek:

lord lucan

Mister Sifter wrote: »

I noticed on the way past this morning that there is a Luas sitting on Abbey Street (to the east of O'Connell Street). I take it that is the one which was hit yesterday? I take it was just moved there last night during the clear up?

There were 2 Luas sets stuck on the far side of the accident,one set at the Abbey st. stop and one at the Busarus stop.

Epic Tissue

Messed Up Mind wrote: »

Just to rant a little bit too, I was really disgusted at the amount of people taking photos on their phones etc., immediately after the accident. No one was even trying to help people off the tram or bus or give them water or get them cups of tea or anything. I ran out to try and help the second I heard the bang without a second thought and thought many others would have too...

Taking pics let others around the country know what happened in less than an hour. Better than waiting for traditional media to cover the story.

Posy

Epic Tissue wrote: »

Taking pics let others around the country know what happened in less than an hour. Better than waiting for traditional media to cover the story.

Sure it was on the RTE news straight away.. after NAMA, the debate about NAMA, a discussion of NAMA, footage of the Dail talking about NAMA and shots of people protesting about NAMA.

KC61

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0917/luas.html

The Chairperson of CIE has said investigations into the Luas and bus crash on O'Connell Street in Dublin will show that the Dublin Bus driver had a green light.

A Dublin Bus and Luas tram collided yesterday afternoon at the O'Connell Street, Abbey Street junction.

More than 20 people were taken to hospital after the accident, which took place just after 3pm.

Chairman Dr John Lynch said the Railway Safety Commission will cover all aspects of what happened yesterday afternoon.

He said the investigation will take some time to be completed.

Dr Lynch said it will look at whether there was a problem with the Luas operation; given the fact the bus driver had a green light. He said the bus driver is badly shaken but alright.

Dr Lynch said that he has reviewed CCTV footage of the incident.

He said that a full investigation will need to take place before the full details of what happened emerge.

Dr Lynch said that whatever occurred was out of the ordinary given the wide nature of the street.

Dublin Bus has been in contact with the passengers affected.


This morning, O'Connell Street reopened to all traffic.

Disruption to services on the Luas Red Line continues with services running only between Tallaght and Smithfield.

Both the Luas and the bus have been removed from the scene.

Three people are said to be in a stable condition in hospital.

Gardaí, Veolia Transport and Dublin Bus are investigating the cause of the collision.

Gardaí concluded their investigation of the crash scene at 4am.

Sideshow Mark

Messed Up Mind wrote: »

Just to rant a little bit too, I was really disgusted at the amount of people taking photos on their phones etc., immediately after the accident. No one was even trying to help people off the tram or bus or give them water or get them cups of tea or anything. I ran out to try and help the second I heard the bang without a second thought and thought many others would have too...

I took one of the photos on the first page, when I got there there were no passengers on the Luas that werent being attended to by professionals. I took a couple of pics and left as I didnt want to be in the way.

Suprisingly I didnt see anyone injured, so I figured that crash had happened maybe 20 minutes or so before I got there, just after three.

Going by the timings my photos were actually from only a few minutes after it happened. Which is odd as I didnt hear or see the crash, I suspect I was walking up North Earl St at the time. An unmarked brown garda car was tearing up Talbot St behind me, it was going at such speed that I thought it wasnt going to turn down Marlborogh St, but continue onto the pedesdtrianised area. When I saw the crashed Luas I though it was heading there, but given the time of the crash its possible that the garda car was already speeding before the crash happened.

John Mason

carlmango11 wrote: »

Who wants to get the ball rolling on conspiracy theories?

does anyone think it is strange that the crash coincided with the announcement of NAMA ?

Distraction tactics perhaps?

Jip

Posy wrote: »

Oh my God, so that's what happened?! :eek:

Yeah, it's fact.


An unmarked brown garda car ? Are you sure, not alone have I never seen a brown unmarked garda car, I haven't seen a brown car of any type since the late 70s/early 80s !

TheBlock

My Oulfella had an old Blue Ford escort that he scratched the side of on a gate so decided to paint it....Brown with a Brush as that's all he had in our Garage (Shed). Ahhhh the 80's when everyone was poor... they were happier days.

Victor

http://www.garda.ie/PressReleases/Default.aspx

Witness Appeal - Luas/Bus Crash on O'Connell Street, Dublin on the 16/9/09.

Anyone who was in the area of O’Connell Street Lower and Abbey Street junction between 2.50 p.m. and 3.15 p.m.

Gardai are appealing for witnesses to collision on O’Connell Street Lower, between a Luas tram and a Dublin Bus about 3.00 p.m. on the 16th of September, to contact them.

They would like to speak to anyone who was in the area of O’Connell Street Lower and Abbey Street junction between 2.50 p.m. and 3.15 p.m.

Gardai also believe that a number of passengers of the bus and the Luas may have left the scene before emergency services arrived and we would like them to contact us.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Store Street Garda station on 01 666 8000.

Garda Press Office
17th September 2009.

cruizer101

Hey, is anyone aware if the Luas is back running as normal yet or is it still only going from Smithfield.

I don't normally get the Luas but I have to get it out today and I haven't seen any around Abbey street yet. I checked luas.ie but is nothing about it making me think it must be running as normal, but juts thought I'd check here.

Cheers for any help.

_blank_

It's back to normal, I saw one at Busaras this morning.

markpb

cruizer101 wrote: »

Hey, is anyone aware if the Luas is back running as normal yet or is it still only going from Smithfield.

I don't normally get the Luas but I have to get it out today and I haven't seen any around Abbey street yet. I checked luas.ie but is nothing about it making me think it must be running as normal, but juts thought I'd check here.

Cheers for any help.

It's been back running normally for several days now - I think full service was restored 24 hours after the crash.

travis.bickle

Luas Driver AQUITTED,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,justice ;-)))

mark renton

john47832 wrote: »

20 quid says the bus ran the red

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