When we mess up, we pay; when they mess up, we pay.
I love the Chinese. Their food is great, and they hold bureaucrats accountable. A manager that messes up there ends up fired… or in jail.
A recent article in B&MC News titled “NTSB determines driver acted ’reasonably‘ in Biloxi train crash” reports the agency absolved both the bus driver and the locomotive engineer of any blame in the accident. Four people died when a train struck a coach stuck “high centered” on a poorly designed rail crossing.
It reported that: “Two causal factors were the severe slope of the crossing and the lack of adequate signage. Third was confusion regarding responsibilities among government agencies”
There were no obvious indications that the crossing was dangerous. One wonders what the bus driver’s fate would be if there had been a warning sign within a mile, or the engineer’s if he’d eaten a poppy seed bagel.
NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said: “The answers were far upstream from the moment of the collision, when the responsibility for safety became diffused.” That’s bureaucrat-speak for “No one is going to be held accountable.” The danger of this, and most other Biloxi crossings, was known for years, with no action taken. But don’t hold your breath waiting for anyone to be disciplined.
Instead of venturing “upstream” to make sure this doesn’t happen again, the NTSB report made a case for mandating a second passenger door on coaches. This appears to be another case of having an agenda item ready to plop into an accident report. It’s remarkably similar to their pitch for sleep apnea testing in the findings on an accident where there was absolutely no evidence that it was a contributing factor. Ironically, in this case, the coach did have the optional second door.
A second passenger entrance (like you find in European buses) makes sense for a very few U.S. operations that value speed of passenger egress over baggage space. An additional door adds weight, reduces luggage capacity and forces drivers to load most baggage on the more dangerous street side of the coach. Your driver can only be at one door assisting customers to prevent falls.
On a two-door motorcoach, the lavatory is located down a set of stairs risky to traverse when the bus is moving. If, heaven forbid, the coach flops on its right side in an accident, both doors are blocked, and passengers evacuate out emergency windows. If it ends up on the left side, the doors are on top, but of no real use. You are still climbing out windows atop an overturned bus.
There are a couple of lessons here. First, there seems to be no mechanism in place to hold bureaucrats accountable. No one is likely to pay a price for an accident that killed four people. That’s wrong. It might be a little harsh to go the Chinese route and imprison (or worse) those responsible for these kinds of things. But there ought to be a price for failure. “Upstream”… really?
Second, if you look at the photos of the accident, it’s worth noting that, after being struck by a freaking three-locomotive, 54-car freight train, the coach body held up remarkably well. Sadly four people died, but 37 were saved, largely because modern buses are so well-built.
A wizened bus guy told me that, in bus crashes, the safest place to be is in a motorcoach. Maybe the headline should have read “All but four saved in tragic accident.”
A serious safety question might be “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”… A bit of Latin to dazzle
