Bridge 1 - Bus - 0

We have our regular buses passing us most days. You can even get a good idea of the time, when you see one. We also get a lot of tour groups going through at all hours, they seem a happy lot usually, waving and smiling. At about 2.30 a.m. this morning the phone went. "A Bus has hit the Mangaotaki Bridge, can you get down there and check it out". I threw a few traffic cones on the back of my truck and sped down there. My initial thoughts were, of course, of carnage and death. It is a concrete bridge and very solid. As I got closer I realised that I hadn't heard any emergency vehicles go past, and there are no scheduled bus trips at that hour of the morning. I relaxed a bit, I can't think of anything worse than a serious bus crash.
I arrived to find a lone police car and an empty bus at the side of the road. It had just clipped the end of the bridge, blowing out a couple of windows, chewing up the left front corner, and shattering the windscreen. The wheels rode down the kerb, which had rolled the wheel rims down like a tin opener, so all the tires on that side were flat. The driver arrived having gone for help and a tire repair man. Having reassured my boss that it was no big deal, we set about getting it mobile by shuffling wheels and tires around from the good side. We soon had it off the road and mobile. A couple of hours later, a rather glum mechanic who had been taking the bus to the workshops, left to face his boss. I went back to bed.
There was a spectacular series of photo's on the Net a couple of weeks ago, a small fire in the engine compartment of a rear engine bus, ended up a spectacular blaze. Fibreglass bodies burn really well.


Should you ever be in this situation. Before you congratulate yourself on getting your luggage out, I would suggest you make sure you move it upwind!
Rest Area 300m