So far, I haven’t been able to find that video. Every video I’ve seen so far either shows the bus on fire after the fire has already started or shows the bus after the fire has ceased.
I’m not saying that the video that shows the beginning of the fire doesn’t exist; I’m just saying that I haven’t been able to find it so far. Maybe I’m not searching right, or maybe someone posted a link to that video, and I missed it.
They had only moments to live after the fire broke out. The smoke would have incapacitated people very quickly.
The bus was moving very fast so it took some time to stop , by which time the driver could have been on fire already or overcome and thus crashed into the barrier .
Well, I watched the video I mentioned from TV, not the Internet. They also have witness accounts. The newspapers also have the graphics explaining the accident.
So the order of the tragedy is fire breaks out, smoke belches out, driver tries to react, something happens that makes him lose control, they crash, everyone dies.
All the companies involved are funded by Chinese capital and are Chinese managed. The government tried to stop them before, but the reality is under the current framework the Bureau of Tourism can do very little about these Chinese tourist enterprises. So this tragedy is essentially an unnecessary Chinese tragedy caused by the Chinese tourism conglomerates.
The problem is triple fold. Even if we put aside the grey legality and conundrums of having a Chinese enterprise here, the consequence of running a business without paying attention to safety or labor laws -as has been stated- and with disregard to such laws to the extent such safe practices cannot be enforced because, well, the businesse themselves are not within the grasp of the law, but keep on doing the same thing again and agian, then we conclude that the disregard for life is the biggest issue, a consequence of having the power to be above the law and beyond. While many taiwanese business do engage in dangerous practices, and that game of closing down and setting up with a new name is an old and effective trick, mixing the Mainland Chinese element adds one more level to the untouchable character of these sleazy businesspeople.
I like the Greyhound buses , which Taiwan govt bus company has. It has side windows that open outwards with a single lever. Release the lever and it opens. This safety feature should be retrofitted on ALL Taiwan buses. It would have helped in this case. Provided the bus came to a stop before the smoke incapacitated everyone.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On the subject of Chinese run shops and businesses:
Since Taiwan does not seem to benefit from Chinese tour groups , as has been outlined here. TW should completely END all tours from China. Leaving ONLY personal travel. Meaning no tour groups. People can visit without being on a tour.
Still have to fix all those TW tour buses though. Death traps they have become.
It would be great if all buses are more safe, but having individually operable windows isn’t a key safety feature. I mean have you seen actual Greyhound buses in the US?
Having a legislation to strengthen the requirement for bus body frames would be great, but that’s also not what caused the death of 26 people this time. The bus hit both the concrete wall and the guard rails, yet the body frame remained undamaged.
Regardless of what caused the fire, having a legislation to only allow fire-retardant materials on the bus, and have adequate enforcement to make sure that is done probably could have saved more lives. The blaze simply spread way too quickly.
If they locked the safety doors, and provided no way for passengers to break the windows, then that’s simply the fault of the bus company, which is the travel agency, which is the Chinese tourism conglomerates.
The video I posted agrees with your version. I was agreeing with you. I’m sorry I didn’t make that clearer.
I was pretty sure that you and hansioux were describing the events accurately even before I saw the video. I just wanted to see the essential order of events with my own eyes.
The windows are supposed to be broken or pushed outward. A driver interviewed on tv -U Bus, one of the companies that goes through the Shueshan tunnel- was demostrating kicking the window down.
Really, everything that could go wrong went wrong in this accident. Looks more like something out of the Final Destination series.
As to the Chinese groups, these discounted tours are traps, forcing people to buy stuff is too 4th world. as seen, it is benefiting only a clique.
Its been awhile since Ive been on Greyhound in the USA. But MCI makes them and they are used by Kuokwang for the Taipei to Taoyuan run. Or used to as they may now have been misplaced.
But they certainly had a lever that you could operate to open the windows outwards. In order to escape if needed. The windows are hinged on TOP and a lever releases a lock on the BOTTOM of the windows that allow them to be opened outwards on its hinges.
I am not sure if this feature is still the case, but I would say most likely as it is beneficial to be able to escape from a burning bus in a timely fashion.
Do they still use those MCI buses on the Taoyuan run and runs to Kaohsiung/Tainan on KuoKwang? Or all replaced and with what?
Seems if the engine catches on fire, things go bad very quickly.
This bus did not catch fire because it hit the guardrail so I understand. It caught fire from the engine and the possibly incapacitated driver hit the guardrail after.
Problem is that the government cannot even enforce inspections of these buses or force them to follow safety regulations. The problem with sealing the emergency doors had been spotted since that awful Aloha accident quite a few years ago and it was supposed to be an anomaly at this time. If it is found out that the exit was jammed on purpose, can the law enforcement do anything about it? punish these companies? I doubt it.
What should stop are abusive tour companies that cut corners on safety, force tourists to shop at their stores, and generally, hinder free trade practices and flaut the rule of law. If Chinese tourists had a choice, and access to information freely, no way they would take this kind of tours, no matter how cheap. As it is, since their travel visas are paired with this kind of tours offered by sleazy companies, their lives are in the hands of crooks all the way.
I’m not contradicting anyone, because I don’t know enough about buses or mechanics to argue any points, but using Google Translate, I seem to understand the Liberty Times as saying police think the fire may have originated near the driver’s seat and might have involved an electrical or mechanical malfunction (possibly including?) a drinking fountain (is that right?), or audiovisual entertainment equipment, and/or (I think) a karaoke machine (?) (卡拉ＯＫ), or maybe some other things that I don’t understand, or maybe I got it completely wrong, so here it is:
Yes, the fire originated in the front. And given that the driver was incapacitated firts and could not control the bus, it makes sense that it was closer to him.
If you see those buses in the front they look like spaceships with all these equipment. But as to what caused the fire, the authorities will have more than speculation soon.
what people think abroad is that the only think highly inflammable is the gas used in the Air con.
apparently, new rules regarding this gas had to be put in places in Europe after some similar accident.
all what i say will need to be confirmed
Oh I see. In that case the tourists obviously deserved to burn then. Or what exactly is your point here?
Exactly. And not paying attention to safety or labour laws is a distinctively Taiwanese way of doing business. Nothing new here.
For every Mainland Chinese crook you need a Taiwanese crook, so blaming China is short-sighted.
Many buses have engines in the rear but many have them in front, is it for sure it wasn’t the engine? Usually its the engine that catches fire but of course that is not the only thing.
Deputy Director-General Huang Yun-kui (黃運貴) of the Directorate General of Highways said Wednesday that the bus, which like most tour buses was an assembled vehicle built by adding locally sourced parts to an imported chassis, had been “sufficiently safe from a legal perspective.” “It’s an open secret that some companies remove unqualified parts before inspections” and reinstall them afterward, Lin said.
