Bus rampage on Merrion Sq.

qz

Just heard on the radio that there's a currently a bit of a clusterfcuk on Merrion Square. Checked Twitter, pics taken from here. Looks pretty nasty! :eek:

langdang

Quick on the ball there lad, looks mad!

January

Jaysus... wonder what happened...

Signpost

& yet they encourage us to take public transport....

cadaliac

Looks like either the accelerator stuck or, the driver could have gotten in to medical difficulty...

W.Shakes-Beer

Could be anything, driver could have had seizure or passed out, who knows.

Hope nobody is injured.

Amalgam

pix.ie link states no injuries.

What is the scenario for destroyed period street fittings? (lamp post and street light)

Do the Corporation try and rebuild, or are there modern reproductions to replace the destroyed pieces with?

qz

Amalgam wrote: »

pix.ie link states no injuries.

What is the scenario for destroyed period street fittings? (lamp post and street light)

Do the Corporation try and rebuild, or are there modern reproductions to replace the destroyed pieces with?

Would probably be contrary to planning regs to replace the posts with more contemporary designs so I'd bet they'd have to put up something very similar if not the exact same.

Paulw

Signpost wrote: »

& yet they encourage us to take public transport....

It's not a public bus. Looks like a private coach (maybe even European).

Dramatic picts all the same. Looks like a lot of damage.

leeroybrown

Signpost wrote: »

& yet they encourage us to take public transport....

In fairness, it looks like the bus won...

trad

Just looking at the pics on the link. Looks like there are people still on board. Also looks like a UK reg BN 56???

opinion guy

Rte reporting Connolly station evacuated due to security concern.

Related ?!?!?!

old_aussie

Signpost wrote: »

& yet they encourage us to take public transport....

:rolleyes: ?????, looks like you'd be safer in the bus than in one of the cars.

cojomo2

Amalgam wrote: »

pix.ie link states no injuries.

What is the scenario for destroyed period street fittings? (lamp post and street light)

Do the Corporation try and rebuild, or are there modern reproductions to replace the destroyed pieces with?

not if you include that nice gti, with cream leather interior:D

Absurdum

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0511/breaking19.html

Tourist coach crashes in Dublin
CLAIRE MCCORMACK

A tourist coach crashed into a number of parked cars on Merrion Square in Dublin this morning.

The crash happened shortly after 9am on the north side of the square. The bus, which was carrying tourists, extensively damaged three parked cars.

The driver of the coach has been taken to hospital. There are no reports of other injuries.

Merrion Square remains open for traffic but there are delays in the area.

I'm gonna run with an Osama Bin Laden revenge attack for now. Run for your lives etc.

Only1Rovers

opinion guy wrote: »

Rte reporting Connolly station evacuated due to security concern.

Related ?!?!?!

1. Bin Laden's son asks U.S. for evidence of his father's death
2. Connolly evacuated
3. Bus crashes on Merrion Square

A co-incidence? I think not....

"THE END IS NIGH"

daveyeh

Drunk?

Asleep at the wheel?

GTA fan?

opinion guy

Only1Rovers wrote: »

1. Bin Laden's son asks U.S. for evidence of his father's death
2. Connolly evacuated
3. Bus crashes on Merrion Square

A co-incidence? I think not....

"THE END IS NIGH"

Only asking a question Saracsmo.


Dammit....Now I know what username I should have picked......

MagicSean

W.Shakes-Beer wrote: »

Could be anything, driver could have had seizure or passed out, who knows.

Hope nobody is injured.

If they aren't injured now they will be when they speak to a solicitor.

opinion guy

Bus must have been going fairly fast for that stretch of road to level the lamp post and push the car through the fence

Absurdum

A nearby Octavia's boot was open, the vast empty space sucked in all matter within a 500m radius.

seamus

opinion guy wrote: »

Bus must have been going fairly fast for that stretch of road to level the lamp post and push the car through the fence

You're probably underestimating the weight of a bus and the power in its engine. Most likely the driver had a heart attack or a seizure and stepped on the pedal or just didn't take his foot off it. Probably doing 20 or 30km/h. Just sheared the front off the passat (?), bounced off the Golf (?) and it would take nothing for bus to push a little car like that through a fence and knock over a lamppost.

gaius c

opinion guy wrote: »

Bus must have been going fairly fast for that stretch of road to level the lamp post and push the car through the fence

Not really. The mass of the bus is way bigger than the cars so even a moderate speed would have seen it plough through the cars.

Hope the driver is okay.

Atomic Pineapple

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0511/connolly.html

Confirmation of Connolly being evacuated, doubt their linked though.

Only1Rovers

seamus wrote: »

You're probably underestimating the weight of a bus and the power in its engine. Most likely the driver had a heart attack or a seizure and stepped on the pedal or just didn't take his foot off it. Probably doing 20 or 30km/h. Just sheared the front off the passat (?), bounced off the Golf (?) and it would take nothing for bus to push a little car like that through a fence and knock over a lamppost.

I think there's a film in this.... we need a bomb somewhere on the bus...

Absurdum

Connolly has re-opened

apologies to anyone actually injured in the incident

Signpost

Damn it, should have studied the pictures a bit better. Who wants to do me a favour with photoshop

opinion guy

Absurdum wrote: »

Connolly has re-opened

apologies to anyone actually injured in the incident

Why were you driving ?

AlekSmart

An unsegregated Bus Lane,nay a Quality Bus Corridor,which allows Buses to run alongside a solid line of Parked Cars was/is always a risky scenario.

My now long dead Instructor's advice that as a Busdriver,all of one's business was with/on the kerb has never been better illustrated.

There are many potential causes for the pictured accident but all we can do here is speculate...

I'm looking at a Touring Coach travelling along Merrion Square past a very popular stretch of Georgian Dublin's best archictecture and perhaps a motorist/s deciding to leave a parking space on the nearside heading eastwards,perhaps seeing a slowly approaching Coach and deciding to "go for it"...another car driver seeing this then makes last minute lunge for that vacant slot....Coach driver then tries to avoid by swerving to the left and ....!!!.

The lack of skid-marks may be due to ABS but in this case I'd say it rules out speed as a major causitive factor ?

End of Speculation

Goopd to hear of no major injuries all the same .

opinion guy

AlekSmart wrote: »

The lack of skid-marks may be due to ABS but in this case I'd say it rules out speed as a major causitive factor ?

Or...just maybe the bus was stopped by crashing into things ?

stevenmu

Impossible to say what caused it yet. It may have been a mechanical failure, the driver may have become incapacitated, the driver may have been somehow negligent, or equally could have been a hero and swerved to avoid a baby on the road. Only a few minutes before this I saw an old woman push a pram out in front of a bus on Kildare St, luckily the bus driver managed to slow and swerve enough to avoid, for all we know she could have carried on up the road to Merrion Sq.

hdowney

crikey it was all go this morning wasn't it. glad to hear that nobody was injured badly. would love to find out what the cause was.

Homer

Reliable source tells me that it was indeed a foreign driver and that Jedward came on the radio and he tried to end his life

Wossack

young male, with a bus load of girls no doubt

its terrible Gaybo, just terrible

Hannibal Smith

omg :eek:

Lando Griffin

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

omg :eek:

+1

mondeo

Maybe the driver had a big loan that he couldn't pay off and slipped into spiraling depression.

Or he is being bullied at work?

His cat died, his wife ran away, his gold fish drowned. I'll see what the news people have to say.

iMax

Three pages in & nobody went with this:



Or even this:

Riskymove

have we suddenly moved to after hours?

Limerick Bandit

Riskymove wrote: »

have we suddenly moved to after hours?

Why? do you feel drunk?

corktina

why do some people always assume that the bus driver is at fault?

BlackWizard

Exactly. Maybe he wasn't even driving the bus at the time!

Tallon

corktina wrote: »

why do some people always assume that the bus driver is at fault?

The clue would be the fact that he's driving the bus!

opinion guy

LIGHTNING wrote: »

I was walking to work a couple a weeks ago and I noticed a coach parked at an odd angle on the path. I as approached the bus I noticed its front wheel was missing! Until you have more information its all just speculation.

Cool story bro...

johnayo

I wonder did any passengers get on the bus after it crashed??????????

Max Power1

opinion guy wrote: »

Cool story bro...

should that be "no opinion guy"

macroman

I experienced throttle jam on a coach before and only for the fact I was barely moving the brakes wouldn't have held it.

It could also have been the coach driver falling ill - two weeks ago I heard of a coach driver having a fatal heart attack whilst behind the wheel, the bus was damaged and the driver died but thankfully there were no bystanders injured.

Either way the outcome could have been much worse.

SilverBell

macroman wrote: »

I experienced throttle jam on a coach before and only for the fact I was barely moving the brakes wouldn't have held it.

It could also have been the coach driver falling ill - two weeks ago I heard of a coach driver having a fatal heart attack whilst behind the wheel, the bus was damaged and the driver died but thankfully there were no bystanders injured.

Either way the outcome could have been much worse.

Yep, I go into work that way, theres always plenty of cars, cyclists and pedestrians. Its amazing there weren't more casualties. Latest news suggests the driver became faint.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0511/breaking19.html?via=mr
Imagine walking along and a bus boofs a parked car into your face.

JMSE

The boot of an Octavia was mentioned earlier, turns out Bertie Ahern jumped out of that boot and the driver swerved to hit him.

corktina

Tallon wrote: »

The clue would be the fact that he's driving the bus!

couldnt have been a car driver having a seizure and driving into the path of the bus then or any of several dozen other scenarios ...:rolleyes:

paddydriver

Word is that Gaybo was there but again was not wearing his seat belt! Terry Wogan is going to confirm on Prime Time later! :eek: