My bus caught on fire this morning
 

We were on the way to school this morning when we heard a load bang coming from the engine bay (I was sitting in the back of the bus, but the engine is in the back for some reason). The bus starts to slow down a little bit and the sound of the engine is noticably differant. The bus driver just keeps driving while me and the Asian kid in the seat next to mine wonder what caused the bang.

A few seconds later the kid in the seat next to me says "Whoa! Dude, there's smoke coming out right next to you!". I turn and see a large cloud of white smoke coming out from right underneath my seat, and in a panic I grab my backpack and jump across the bus into the Asian kid's seat, holding my backpack up like a sheild. The bus starts filling with smoke and we all open the windows to get the smoke out, but that only causes it to come in further up (But at least it is less thick in the front).

Our bus starts slowing down and pulling over to the side of the road, with smoke coming out heavily from the back. Our bus comes to a stop and it is then we realise the smoke has changed to black and flames shooting out the back. I start flipping out (The engine is behind me, and black smoke means we are burning either diesil fuel or oil) and screaming the bus is going to explode. Everyone panics and we start evacuating the bus, and we notice huge flames shooting out the back. A bunch of passing motorists stop and come to help us, and the fire is getting worse and their is a real danger of explosion. Someone grabs a fire extingisher and sprays it into the back of the bus, at the flames pouring out from the exhaust and engine area. It is then we realize we just blocked a major road into DC, causing a traffic jam of several miles.

FInally they put the fire out and half the bus gets to leave by hitching a ride. The rest of us are forced to wait on the side of the road in the horrible wind and cold, being too scared to go back into the ruined bus. Eventually the fire department and ambulences arrive, and then they start checking us out for injuries. The good thing is that no one is harmed, although we are all pretty shaken by our near death experience. About 20 minutes after the fire started we are taken to school on another bus which was convenitly running late.

I'm pretty scared because I could have died. Anyone else had anything this scary every happen to them?

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Your bus driver was a dumbass. Smoke iscoming out the back and he is just driving along. Do me a favor and punch him in the face the next time you see him. My god if you're to stupid to not stop a vehicle you're driving when a loud bang comes from knowehere while the engine starts to sound different then you should be functioning as a speed bumb on the road.

The worst thing that has happen to me (bus related) was when I was about 11 years old. My crapy bus's brakes basically stopped working in the middle of a highway! We went through a red like at a 4 way intersection! Fortuneatly my bus driver was smart enough to shift into low gear then drive on the side of the road then turn the engine off. The whole experiance lasted about 2 minutes; I think, maybe less. Just dont get frantic everytime you enter a bus. Remember that it doesnt happen to often, and if it happens again, then God probably hates you! But since you survived, concider him a friend!

One time when i actually almost died was years ago... I was driving my ATV and like a jackass I tried to do a jump. Although I have done them before, I decided to go a bit faster and hit the hill at a different angle. I was pissed at my mom about something so my mind was preoccupied. Anyway, I went off the jump and the quad kinda turned sideways in the air. It went one way, I went another. hahaha. Well I ended up hitting the ground on my chest and sliding about 5 feet into a buried rock (about 1 inch of its top was sticking up). So I blacked out for a few moments and I see my dad running with all his fatness as if a chocolate cake was by my side. For some reason I started screaming, I couldnt see, my chest hurt badly, and I was having breathing problems. I didnt realize it at the time but I had alot of dust in my eyes and I was having a panic attack. Fortunatly all I did was bruise my sternum, just above my solar plexus.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Read again, he said the driver kept on driving after the "bang". Obviously when the smoke was visible he slowed down and stopped.

He should have stopped after the bang... but

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

read again einstein thats what i said...

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Your first sentence is in conflict with your other one:
To be honest, I only read your first sentence. You don't just say one thing and then another thing that is different from your first sentence.

And its a school bus. There are big bangs all the damn time. The suspension on most busses are crap. You hit a pothole and the whole damn thing trembles like its going to fall apart.

For a bug driver, big bangs shouldnt be too uncommon.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Lolz, well nothing too scary happened to me on the bus. (you are talking about public transportation buses right? The engine for those are usually in the back)

My bus driver was just a plain idiot, it wasn't a scary experience though. I think I was 12, and me and my little brother were on the CTA going close to school. SO I pull the wire and walk up to the front. Then the driver passes our stop, when I realize he was talking about a girl in a bathtub. I started cursing at him! Whats and old bus driver doing talking about porn while passing my stop?

So I cursed him out, and still had to walk the extra block for the stop he passed.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Good thing that that pervert isn't a school bus driver.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

No he said he was on a school bus although I have never seen a school bus with the engine in the back.:uhm:

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

well a near death Motorvehicle incident i had was, we we're drivin along to go campin in a really old crappy motorhome, and The seatbelt was just some piece of crap attached to a board UNDER the vehicle,turns out that board fell off and the seatbelt got caught in the tire, ripped the whole seatbelt out the vehicle, if i was wearin my seat belt (which thankfully i wasnt) the seatbelt would have ripped right through me as it got yanked out the vehicle.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

That bus driver must have had pretty slow reactions, the last time I remember reading about a bus catching on fire was a few years ago, but then the bus driver had stopped, let out the passengers and used the fire extinguisher (mandatory equipment in buses) to extinguish the fire.


Fortunately I can't remember anything that scary happening to me, I suppose driving off a main road at high speed last year, ending up stopped by a stone and a tree slightly avoiding getting the other two wheels into the deep ditch and the concrete drum in it on the way to the stop could have been considered scary, but it happened so fast I barely had time to hit the brakes and try to steer the tiny car I was driving a little.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

More of a GD-thread, I guess
:moved:

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Oh, well last time I checked school buses hand engines i the front...

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Then I suppose that was in the '40s, all somewhat big buses have had rear or mid-engines for dozens of years? :confused:

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

For some reason we are using the same bus that broke down withen the day after it was a burning mess. It doesn't smell very good right now, I walked onto it and it smelled like gunpowder this afternoon. When I stepped off the bus the whole air smelled like gunpowder too. Now instead of being the kids from the burning bus we are the kids from the smelly bus.

My have we fallen from grace...

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Rofl.

I remember on one of the old buses I used to catch, it broke down as it was making it's way up the driveway of the school on our way home. Well, it wasn't too good when we had a large column of cars behind us..

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Many many buses, including school buses, have engines in the rear. All the buses at Rutgers University have the engines in the rear, save for the much smaller F 350 buses that are used for special needs people. Around my neighborhood I see many school buses for different schools, some with engines in the front, a few with them in the back (which, seem much older). I don't think too many newer buses come with engines in the back anymore do to safety reasons: there's usually an emergency door at the rear.

On topic: as for this "near death experience," I don't want to belittle you but I think it was nothing to worry about. Sure, being stuck in a bus filling up with smoke isn't fun but no one was hurt, the driver stopped in time and got you kids off, police and EMT's were on the scene, and you got to school. Proof that there was nothing serious: you are still on the same bus. For all the driver knew, it could have just been an exhaust kickback that caused a "bang." Sure, it was scary, but not a near death experience.

My near death experiences: My father and I were driving to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving when we were T-boned by some asshole in a honda. We were going 75 on the parkway when we were hit which, caused us to do a couple flips, land on the roof of the truck, and slide down the road. Without seatbelts we both could have been flung from the truck and ended up as roadkill.
My other near death experience: skin cancer.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

here is a pic of a school bus with the engine in the back

http://tntplanet.com/roxbury/Busses/Thomas699-1.jpg

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Sure you didn't misunderstand something, I said I haven't seen any buses below museum-age have front engines?:uhm:

Just to show why I didn't understand the claim of front engined buses, an ordinary, ten years old Finnish bus, which I have seen used also as school bus (we don't really have any special buses for that purpose, it's just ordinary buses hired for the specific time and route):
http://killerpop.irc.fi/tsb/720540/l...jat_39_001.jpg
(As a matter of fact that would be the same one I sometimes went to school with years ago when it was quite new.)

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Not had any problems on public transportation myself but if we are talking about general motoring near-death things then, on the way back from a trip to cornwall me and my dad was driving back to london at about 110-120 mph when out of the blue, the oil tank under the rear of the car ruptures, just like that, oil is sent flying everywhere and we're left drifting in the fast lane at over 100 mph, just lucky that there were no other cars near our rear and we was able to coast over to the hard shoulder.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Eh...well yeah my bus driver was either an ex heroin user or loved his weed. He'd always take a sharp Connor at 100mph.thank God for all thoughts fat chicks that sat on the left side of the bus!

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

That sucks, but vehicles seldom "explode".
Usually its just burning off fuel in the engine.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

My bus driver in my 8th grade year hit a dog being walked by someone. If you can see the person along with the arm being pulled in a direction most likely they have a dog. MOVE OVER!!!!!!!

Then this year (9th grade) my bus driver was driven around the lake near my house and just slammed on the brakes for no reason. The car behind us hits us and the bus driver started bitching (pardon my french) and the old lady behind us. We were like WTF then started laughing when she started yelling at the old lady.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Not true. What happens when the engines on large/powerful vehicles blow up. Look at the dragsters (yes they have about 200 times the HP than that of the new Corvette Z06 (400 HP). Their engines can go BOOM big time. Most of the time theres a fault in the engine (i.e. a big crack) then the piston goes into the compression stage causing the crack to expand thus making a hole/making engine weaker fire leaks out and engine goes BOOM!!!!!! LOl. :)

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Woa, sounds traumatizing...
Worst thats happened to me (a lot) is just falling asleep on the bus and waking up at the drivers house still in the backseat... so... awkward...

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

haahha who falls a sleep on a bus... glad i can drive to school now :)

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

LOL.....ZZZZZZZzzzzzzz....ZZZZZZZzzzzzzz.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Scary! Hope everyone is okay, and the bus didn't putter out permanently.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the dragsters you're talking about powered by jet/rocket engines? If memory serves, they don't have pistons mate...

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

Yes, i have such things happening to me all the times...
My schoolbusdriver is the worst driver i ever encountered. We hit stuff several times a month. Once there was this huge fat Mercedes coming from the side on a corner and hit the bus at full speed. (only accident where it was not my busdriver's fault ever) The schoolbus itself is total rubbish and was taken off the roads this weekend. (finally we got rid of that thing, it was so uncomfortable) The front of the mercedes was completely desintegrated and it looked like the two persons in the car had the engine between them. Only the car driver had a light cut in the forehead, no other injuries. I was sitting right where the car hit; at the window, above the rear wheel. I think that really fat and massive bus rim saved me from injuries because the car hit the rim and the bus was not even damaged. I was (along with my friends sitting somewhere everywhere around me) terribly shaken by the impact, it frightened me, and when the bus stood still i was like "What the heck?", i checked on my friends and one of them was really confused and i started comforting her, and when i looked out the window i immediately stepped out to see the damage on our bus. Not a scratch. It was a very funny moment because that bus was really crapy and looked like it would fall apart in the least of shocks.



That's if the engine is still turning full throttle when there is damage.
A shut off engine in a bus that's on fire will not likely blow up, however the fuel tank might...

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

No that is a landjet. They are basically cars with modded F-16 engines. And they really dont serve any usefull prupose other than to study thermodynamics or aerodynamics.

Re: My bus caught on fire this morning
 

I wonder what it is with Buses always breaking down. Is it maybe the bus drivers are too stupid to maintain them?

Last year my son was taking to school bus on the way home from school (this was a different school bus because the other one was in for repairs) and the breaks didn't work. So then the driver takes them back to school. Real safe, huh?

Sometimes when I take him to the bus stop the engine smells like it's burning... or something. Can't describe the smell very well but it doesn't smell right. I've asked the driver about it, and he just shakes his shoulders like nothings wrong. He probably doesn't care.

Umm...no. Dragsters are powered by 7,000 HP Supercharded V8s or V10s. If you look closely on ESPN at the top fuel dragsters you can clearly tell they use piston engines.

And to go really, really, really fast

To correct you, the bus drivers don't maintain them they just drive them. They also let the school district/county know if the gas is low, check engine light is on or if anything else goes wrong. But there are some who will take additional time out of their day to check on the bus. But the ones in my district (lazy asses) just drive them, drop off/pick up the students, drive back to school and go to work or most likely home.

I'd get a nice settlement check out of this. Oh, and I've been on TWO buses that have been hit by cars. I've never been in a wreck in a car, just school buses.

And refering to the post earlier talking about most busses have engines in the front. At my high school which is from the old geezer era they have about 2 and ocassionaly 3 rear engine busses. They're probably from the late nineties.

all of our new buses have rear engines 2007 models look pretty good for a school bus TBH

Wouldnt it be cool if we all took seahawks to school instead of busses!

dream on lol

That would be sweet. Then if some one talked crap to you. You could just jump in get on the minigun and mow em down. lol.

The buses in my area are horribly unreliable. Especially the ones they use for college runs - they're generally old, overworked and falling apart at the seams. Kind of ironic that today we had a brand new bus for a change, and then that went and broke down. Had to wait half an hour for a minibus. Grr.

I suppose the weirdest (and certainly most annoying) experience I've had with a bus breaking down was (funnily enough) with a very old double-decker at college - as we were leaving at the end of the day we noticed the engine was having trouble ticking over in traffic, and the transmission was making grinding noises from underneath us. Sure enough, once we get to the city centre the driver tells us that the bus will probably break down completely before it reaches our stop, and that we had the choice of either taking our chances and hoping that the transmission didn't fail completely or wait for a replacement bus that would arrive in about 20 minutes. In the end some people stayed on the bus, whilst pretty much everyone else (myself included) got on the replacement bus. We were about halfway home, and then guess what? The damn replacement bus broke down going up a hill...

At that point I'm pretty pissed off so I just call my parents to ask for a lift home.

Later I find out that the first bus made it home fine, albeit slowly. :rolleyes: