Nasty Articulated Bus Accident

[busfan]

Every accident that occurs the operator always claimed "the steering went out", or the "brakes went out". The 26 years I was at CTA thats what was always reported. I remember 2 times 10 years ago when they had a problem with poor wheel bearings on the old artics and it did cause 2 accidents. All other times it was investigated and turned out to be "operator error". The operator is then terminated for "falsifying documents" by signing statements about brakes or steering when nothing wrong was found. In this case CTA is not releasing any information due to the fact it happened on LSD and the NTSB is involved in this investigation. After reviewing the cameras the news reported that "there was no evidence of any passenger helping the operator fight the steering wheel". If the steering went out, or a wheel bearing lke the goofy Local 241 says might have happened, it wouldnt take a week to find that out. Im assuming that so far they have found nothing wrong with the bus.

[Guest]

My biggest question right now is, How can that bus already have 60,000 miles on it? Its only a couple of years old! Where did all those miles accumulate?

[Busjack]

My biggest question right now is, How can that bus already have 60,000 miles on it? Its only a couple of years old! Where did all those miles accumulate?

They way I figure it, that's low. Let's say that a round trip on Route 6 is about 30 miles (from 79th and South Shore to downtown and back). According to the schedule, it takes two hours to make a round trip. The bus runs 19 hours a day, so potentially up to 9 trips per day. That would get you up to 190,000 miles. Maybe the more rational explanation is that any particular bus is in service 1/3 of the time, which would then work out to 60,000.

As far as other speculation, given that the bus has cameras and a black box, and busfan says that an NTSB investigation is taking place, I think I will withhold judgment until the results are in.

[artthouwill]

According to the link on this homepage, the CTA is already saying there were no mechanical problems with the steering on this bus.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7725597

This is why the union has been insisting on an independent investigation. Apparently they feel that CTA would never be fair and partial and look to blame the operator for this crash.

However, I believe there may have been an intermittent problem with the steering. I remember driving for a coach company and on occasion, one particular bus had this unique braking problem. Most of the time, the bus would stop on a dime, but every now and then, it took a while longer to stop. Once it made me go through a red light even though I had the brake pedal to the floor. I mentioned this to the owner a few times, even telling him I won't drive that bus again. He claimed the mechanic looked over and over and could not find a problem. Yet he wound up mentioning that another driver complained of the same problem.

I don't believe the CTA operator just steered the bus off the road. Something unusual happened to cause that accident to occur. Perhaps the black box will tell us something.

[Busjack]

According to the link on this homepage, the CTA is already saying there were no mechanical problems with the steering on this bus.

http://abclocal.go.c...ocal&id=7725597

The more interesting point in that ABC story was that the CTA is under orders to preserve the bus in its existing condition. While such orders are common, I find it hard to believe that it would stay in effect for very long, given the public interest in investigating the accident and the possibility of getting the bus back on the road.

[rmadisonwi]

My biggest question right now is, How can that bus already have 60,000 miles on it? Its only a couple of years old! Where did all those miles accumulate?

According to the National Transit Database, in 2008 CTA's bus fleet traveled over 70 million miles (I don't know if that's scheduled service, or the entirety of everything). If you figure a fleet of approximately 2000 buses, then, in 2008, the fleet was averaging 35,000 miles per bus per year.

I don't know what the new totals are with service cuts, but the fleet was cut along with the service, so even though VMTs went down, the average per bus might still be around the same number.

The oldest of the DE60LFs are just turning two years old right now, so having buses with 60-70,000 miles isn't really that shocking.

[qwantae]

According to the National Transit Database, in 2008 CTA's bus fleet traveled over 70 million miles (I don't know if that's scheduled service, or the entirety of everything). If you figure a fleet of approximately 2000 buses, then, in 2008, the fleet was averaging 35,000 miles per bus per year.

I don't know what the new totals are with service cuts, but the fleet was cut along with the service, so even though VMTs went down, the average per bus might still be around the same number.

The oldest of the DE60LFs are just turning two years old right now, so having buses with 60-70,000 miles isn't really that shocking.

So how many miles does the oldest DE40LFs that came in service in 2006 have about now, about over 200,000 miles now?