i-35 mm 47 oklahoma semi vs school bus.

There but for the grace of God go I. I have much to thank God for.

 

If the truck was moving at 60 mph then it would take over nine seconds for it to run 820 feet in a straight line through the median before entering the southbound lanes.

Think about that for a moment. Nine seconds running straight and out of control with the cab getting tossed around from the ride through the grass at 60 mph.

If the driver was in his seat, conscious, and unimpaired there is no way that could have happened.

The more I think about this the more it seems possible or likely he was unbuckled and leaning over to get a drink when the jolt from running off the pavement into the drop onto the wide, grassy median tossed him out of his seat and he likely also lost grip of the steering wheel. That's the only way it would be possible for brakes to have never been applied in nine seconds, cruise control to continue to churn forward, and the steering wheel never turned to avoid the bus.

He was AWOL from the controls.

 

This appears to be a very sad, avoidable tragedy. It's hard to fathom how a professional driver would wreck under these circumstances, as the evidence shows. It appears the driver did nothing to even remotely indicate he was under any control of his rig whatsoever. I've never heard of such a thing.

May God grant peace and strength to all the survivors and their families.

 

While this seems quite possible, it's not probable that while he was tossed from his seat, that his foot did not bump the cruise, brake, nor accelerator pedal which would have disengaged the cruise control. Let's think about that. A driver supposedly sitting in his seat, with his feet down near the pedals, leaning for something behind him or beside him, and then gets tossed from the seat without bumping any of the pedals?

I think you've got a good scenario here, only I have a problem with the guys feet not bumping any of the pedals when he was tossed from his seat...

 

Cruise control engaged and feet off the pedals, reaching over with his right butt cheek on the seat and maybe a foot in the air to balance, hard upward shock from initial impact in the median forces his upper torso violently downward and throws his feet in the air. Now he's getting tossed by the violent ride through the median and can't get back upright in position to get to the pedals or gain control of the steering wheel.

 

Helluva thing.

 

Well if that's what happened maybe you should consider become a forensic pathologist rather than driving a truck. You've got a talent, my friend.

 

Homicide just means death by another human. By itself, it does not mean a criminal act was commited.

 

Thanks, but this collision (I hate calling them "accidents") was eating at me.

Once I learned he traveled in a straight line for close to three football fields through the median (and calculated how many seconds that had to take), then impacted the bus without taking evasive action and continued in a straight line all the way into the trees on the opposite side of the freeway...

... the reasonable answer is that gentleman wasn't in control of a vehicle set on cruise control.

Nobody that was buckled in and at the controls could possibly do that. Brakes would have been applied to disengage the cruise control and slow the truck to a stop in the median. The steering wheel would have been turned to avoid the bus.

The likelihood the driver deliberately drove at the bus is remote to impossible. Having a medical problem could explain the scenario, but then the driver would have made an apparent statement to that fact. Instead he said he was "distracted by something in the cab" that was otherwise reported to be reaching for a drink.

Nine seconds to get across that median.

If he was buckled in he would have been in the driver's seat and capable of applying the brakes and turning the wheel even in the violence of running a truck off road.

I posted this video in the seat belt thread and thought it might be a good wake up call in this thread for anyone thinking driving unbuckled when going off road is a good idea.

 

Dont go off road...better idea