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Rockingham NC Bus Crash

Far be it from me to speculate, but recently I have noticed more blow-outs and tire failures sitting along the highway than what I have think is "normal". I have a suspicion that cheap Chinese tires are making their way into the American market. Maybe not and maybe the foreign made tires are 1st class, but I would not feel safe with them on my vehicle. I will not even run any tire that is over 5 years old, no matter how good the tread is. I do not know if this applies to the radial tires that we run today, but some years back when bias tires were run, I had a tire engineer tell me that the first 500 miles of a new tire is the most dangerous, the tire had not "flexed out" and got seated real good yet.
 
The Best said:
Far be it from me to speculate, but recently I have noticed more blow-outs and tire failures sitting along the highway than what I have think is "normal". I have a suspicion that cheap Chinese tires are making their way into the American market. Maybe not and maybe the foreign made tires are 1st class, but I would not feel safe with them on my vehicle. I will not even run any tire that is over 5 years old, no matter how good the tread is. I do not know if this applies to the radial tires that we run today, but some years back when bias tires were run, I had a tire engineer tell me that the first 500 miles of a new tire is the most dangerous, the tire had not "flexed out" and got seated real good yet.
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Have also read articles about some truck tires and rims not able to sustain speeds above 70 mph. They both have potential to come apart. Not saying this is what happened, but think today's speed on our highways are out of control.
 
Every one of those buses I see is, pedal down in the Hammer Lane. I guess they can afford to pay out millions of dollars to the families of othese victims. All these buses should be governed at 65 miles an hour. They are not hauling Freight, they have people's lives in their hands.
 
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I have said this before, but 20 years out of the 53 that I have spent in the transportation business were in the bus business. The quality of bus drivers has declined as it has in the trucking sector and especially in the "tour companies". I am not saying that this driver was not fully qualified but far too many "tour bus drivers" are people who are retired from other professions and decided that they wanted to drive a bus. They spent a few hours training and were taken down to the dmv to get their CDL and there they were now, a "tour bus driver"---LOL Never drove anything bigger than a SUV but now they are behind the wheel of a bus with 50 or better passengers in their hands.

The first driving job that I ever had was driving for Trailways and the best job that I ever had too. But I spent 6 weeks in school, 4 weeks getting "OKed" by old drivers. No matter how much driving experience you had, you went thru Trailways school and were checked, viewed, examined, tested for 4 weeks by 4 different older drivers. This is not the case today with so many "mom and pop" charter outfits out there. When trucking was de-regulated, so was the bus business and as the trucking end, the bus end went to hell too.
 
Oh my whats wrong with the justice system?
The video reports that the lead bus driver was charged with unsafe lane change,& 2 other charges.
However the tailing bus driver didn't get charged at all?
Well such as driving to fast in the tunnel,as well as following to close,had that driver been driving in a safe manor.

I believe this crash would have never happened,yes charge the first driver,as well as the second I think they were both at fault.

But this may just be my opinion on this crash as a former UPS Freight safety trainer.
 
Watched your video tutone710 & the car hauler really had time to back down & let that rude bus driver do as he wished.
However he demanded his right of way & almost wrecked.

You know folks used to ask me how I was able to have such a long trucking career without having crashes.
I told them when I drive & somebody cuts me off I give them all the room they want,its called defensive driving.
 
Apostolic said:
Watched your video tutone710 & the car hauler really had time to back down & let that rude bus driver do as he wished.
However he demanded his right of way & almost wrecked.

You know folks used to ask me how I was able to have such a long trucking career without having crashes.
I told them when I drive & somebody cuts me off I give them all the room they want,its called defensive driving.
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Being professional means avoiding accidents if possible even if others are aggressive. Teaching rude drivers a lesson is the job of law enforcement. Eventually they will be caught. I knew an elderly man that would drive the speed limit in the left lane to slow down traffic. A trooper friend pulled him over. The elderly man told him those that passed were speeding. The trooper wrote a warning ticket & told the elderly man he was impeding traffic flow that was causing a backup that was also dangerous. The trooper reminded him again whose job it was to enforce the law.
 
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