Bus crash on Wellington Quay

BrianD3

Personally some of you guys that have posted on this thread disgust me, this isnt your everyday incident, 5 people were torn to pieces under a fast moving buss. Multiple more people were injured from shattered glass and flying objects. If this is put under the classification of an everyday incident then I give up on this country

People are literally torn to pieces on the road every day of the week. RTAs do tend to have a drastic effect on the human body. Ask any fireman. While the bus crash was not an everyday incident, equally tragic events occur on the roads quite regularly. You need to wake up. Just because you witnessed the bus crash first hand, does not mean that it was somehow a uniquely tragic or horrific event.

BrianD3

uberwolf

I appreciate your point and understand it but -

there are a few things about this which make it unique in circumstance if not in outcome.

i) it occurred in a location that had been supposedly designed and designated as safe.

ii) any road incident which leaves 17 people hospitalised is 'major'.

iii) it involved a state body & public transport.

Cabaal

I personally see this as a everyday accident, yes its terriable people died, and yes its a terriable accident in general but alot worse things happen on a day-to-day basis and nobody seems to give a flying **** about the other events.

People's prioritys just ain't right sometimes..

BrianD3

Point taken about the circumstances of the accident. An extreme example of this would be:
-If 350 people die on the roads in a year, it's barely newsworthy
-If a Boeing 747 crashes on landing at Dublin airport and 350 people die - there will be blanket news coverage for weeks - everyone will be talking about it - it'll be a major event - there will be huge investigations into why it occured.

BrianD3

uberwolf

Originally posted by Cabaal
People's prioritys just ain't right sometimes..

proximity leads to priority...
people can identify so easily with this incident. My brother missed his connecting bus to this one. He took an hour and a half to answer his phone afterwards. We though he was involved for that time. Sundays main news was 8 Israeli's dead in a suicide bomb, only marginally worse in death count. Dublins streets matter more to me than Tel Avivs.

Still more people died of Aids on saturday than buses. But its harder to see, we're sheltered from it.

Point taken about the circumstances of the accident. An extreme example of this would be:
-If 350 people die on the roads in a year, it's barely newsworthy
-If a Boeing 747 crashes on landing at Dublin airport and 350 people die - there will be blanket news coverage for weeks - everyone will be talking about it - it'll be a major event - there will be huge investigations into why it occured.

that investigation will lead to (potentially) one single cause which can be prevented from reoccuring. Those seperate deaths all have seperate circumstances and are harder to diagnose collectively. They both merit action and both are tragic.

Victor

During the 30 or so years of the "troubles" 3,500 died in the violence, but perhaps 30,000 died on the roads (North & South).

JackKelly

oh my god.i can't believe some of the things being said here.

bertie being an attention whore?

This being a normal accident?

Memnoch

i hate being cynical at a time like this, but I think the only reason people care is because this happened too close for comfort. When someone dies so near, it reminds us of our own mortality and that of our friends loved ones. For once we think, jeez, that could have been me, or my mother/father/brother/sister/friend.
So we say we are "sorry it happened" and "feel bad" about it.
but truth be told, i don't think anyone really cares about the life of another human being.

600,000 civilians are reported to have been killed since the U.S. began its "anti-terror" crusade in afghasthan and Iraq. Now you tell me... do people really care about human life?

mike65

Originally posted by Memnoch
600,000 civilians are reported to have been killed since the U.S. began its "anti-terror" crusade in afghasthan and Iraq. Now you tell me... do people really care about human life?

Ho-hum...show me the figures....

No actually don't!

Mike.

daveJAM

Was anyone watching Sky News at 1am Sunday night/ Monday morning? In the "In Brief" Section the reporter said that "the police" knew about this 2 weeks ago!

It seems like a mistake tho because the first part of the sentence didnt exactly fit together with the second. Almost like he misread the auto cue. Was going to wait for it to come on again but they went to the CBS news so didn't.

Haven't heard anything about it since. Also its a lot more bizarre then some of the Flipping/Hi-jacking theories out there.

Just wondering if anyone else witnessed this? Or did I imagine it? Could have upset a some people if the families or friends were watching!

Töpher

Originally posted by Memnoch
600,000 civilians are reported to have been killed since the U.S. began its "anti-terror" crusade in afghasthan and Iraq. Now you tell me... do people really care about human life?

How many of them were their own troops?

On a serious level tho, I agree with your point. If the exact same thing happened in America we porbably wouldn't hear about it, but the Americans would react in the way most irish people did. But its human nature to worry and think of your family and friends, and yourself, when something like this happens close to home, it's just the selfish level on which the human race operates. But if we didn't work like this, we'd either have no feelings and emotions at all, or break down every time someone in china gets hit by a rickshaw*.


*car.

Genghis

Originally posted by daveJAM
Was anyone watching Sky News at 1am Sunday night/ Monday morning? In the "In Brief" Section the reporter said that "the police" knew about this 2 weeks ago!

I'm not following you here - what did the police apparently know about? Were they suggesting it was planned?

I know people had concerns about the bus stop and I agree with them, but honestly, the nature of the incident was not routine - its 'freakiness' suggests to me that it could've happened at practically any bus stop. Likewise, although measures can (and should) now be taken to review safety at all bus stops along the quays, there is little we could do to prevent something so non-routine like this happening again.

Exit

For the record, the gf tells me this story made her local city news in Canada, so it's not all that usual of an event.

Lump

Yea, but she tells you that she's been faithful to you....


John

seamus.carey

I'm disgusted by some of the postings to this topic. I'm a young Irishman currently living in France and I happened to notice the thread on boards.ie where I am a frequent visitor and thought perhaps I could find out more about the accident. I didn't expect to see some of the cynical and blatantly idiotic postings.

First of all, the appearance of the Taoiseach had absolutely no bearing on the event whatsoever. In any country, in the time of a national accident or emergency, public figures are always present. After September 11th, G.W. Bush was one of the first visitors to Ground Zero. I'm not trying to compare the bus accident to 911 or G.W. Bush to Bertie Ahern but the accident was something out of the ordinary in Dublin and warranted his presence if only as a symbolic gesture that the Government actually care about the people. If he had been seen in the area and not turned up, he would have been accused of not caring. He can't seem to win. To suggest that he was trying to get media attention is ridiculous and to say that he stopped any rescue-workers from completing their jobs shows a complete lack of respect for their professionalism.

Secondly lines like, "I hope I don't know anyone who died, I usually get that bus" are completely superfilious to the thread. Even if you did happen to talk to that person once, their death is not going to have a massive impact on your life. Whether you know that person or not, they are still a person and they will leave loving falilies behind.

Thirdly, lines like the media digust me really annoy me. The media do a job, reporting on what they believe the public want to hear about. The fact that people like BrianD3 looked and posted to this thread shows that you had some interest in the story. Plus other posters have said that they left GameCON to see what happened, proof of natural human interest. Most people who pass a traffic accident have to look to see if they can see anything and judging by the reaction of the crowds of people waiting around at the scene, the same can be said of the bus accident. Its a natural human reaction for most people, gruesome and disgusting but natural.

Fourthly, this cannot be compared to a regular traffic accident and this point can also be used to back up the extreme media frenzy. Ok, 40,000 people died in an earthquake in Iran in December, 60,000 in Iraq, 3,000 in 911 but this happened in Ireland and will thus affect us more. In regular traffic accidents, to some extent one is in control of the situation, i.e. driving. Whether the accident is their fault or not, one has some level of control over what happens. In this accident, none of the victims were in any level of control. Coupled with the fact the car-accidents happend all the time, bus accidents don't, this of course led to more media attention.

Finally the accident involves a public service, something which people use every day, this bringing the accident closer to home and it occured in the middle of a busy city. All these factors contributed to it becoming a bigger media even that a regular car accident.

The media report on what interests people and the fact that there have been 114 messages to this thread shows that it fulfilled its role.

My thoughts are with those who died and are injured but also with both bus drivers, who hopefully will be able to continue with their lives.

Sorry for my rant, been a long day...

Crash

Originally posted by seamus.carey
Thirdly, lines like the media digust me really annoy me. The media do a job, reporting on what they believe the public want to hear about.

i'm sorry but i gotta say something about this. I know relatives of one of the women that died (only realised who she was last night) and after looking in the herald i think it was seeing the piece that said "no one was around last night when we called round" kinda ****e (cant remember the exact wording) i was absolutely furious. its this kinda ****ty tabloid reporting that drives me insane. i mean it was a day since the incident and they came calling looking for a reaction. Sick ****ing bastards.

mang87

Yer, someone involved in this accident, some foreign people lived around the block from me. He was on the phone to his wife when he was killed, they had just bought a house in their home country and he, his wife and his daughter were moving back their next month... Jesus, this guy was cool, couldnt understand a thing he said mind you, although on holloween every year, we called in, lol he had nothing to give us so so he went back int the cubbord and found some rich tea biscuits and handed them out, he was such a nice guy... I have been around to see his wife, a few of us called in, god she is in such a state

Victor

4 people were killed in Belfast in an accident today. Very little news about it. Did the Irish consul in Belfast go to the scene? Did David Trimble?

I think the media has become bored with reporting car accidents, but likes to bash public transport because buses and trains and airplanes mean more dead people in any given incident. However, perhaps 1% of people killed in transport accidents were killed in accidents involving public tranport.

Lump

Yea it makes the public service look bad


John

daveJAM

Originally posted by Genghis
I'm not following you here - what did the police apparently know about? Were they suggesting it was planned?

I know people had concerns about the bus stop and I agree with them, but honestly, the nature of the incident was not routine - its 'freakiness' suggests to me that it could've happened at practically any bus stop. Likewise, although measures can (and should) now be taken to review safety at all bus stops along the quays, there is little we could do to prevent something so non-routine like this happening again.

Thats all they said! That they knew about it. Didn't expand on it. But as I said, sounds way too bizarre. Must have simply misread the autocue.

Crash

what they're talking bout there is that the bus stop was supposedly unsafe and there had been reports and complaints about it made to dublin bus prior to this.

GreeBo

Originally posted by whosurpaddy
. i just think that him being there was a distraction in general.

who exactly was he distracting?
I have no clue as to what your point is and I am obviously not alone...