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Bus-B-Q closes turnpike lanes

Bus that was on fire on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Framingham

State Police report a bus flamed out westbound on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Framingham around 9 a.m. There were no injuries and traffic wasn't really much affected, even with two closed lanes, because few people have anywhere to go westbound on the Pike at 9 a.m. on a Sunday - except the people in the bus, for whom another bus was brought in so they could continue on their way.

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Comments

For stepping into the void left by Fung Wah.

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MegaBus killed multiple passengers by storrowing them to death on a highway that the driver should never have taken.

Enough with the FungWah bashing already.

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But Fung Wah committed the worse crime of not bending over backwards to federal regulators.

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Can we not keep using Fung Wah? Or at least explain why we keep using Fung Wah? Other companies actually killed people but comments keep returning to Fung Wah. I'm pretty sure most UHub readers have read enough to be aware by now, so why is the comments keep perpetuating Fung Wah's myth rather MegaBus deaths or BoltBus explosion that happen a lot more recently?

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but, I see they were able to liquidate their fleet of buses!

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Manufacturer of bus should be sued!!

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I think the bigger questions are:

1. is this happening more frequently, or are we just hearing about it more (I think the former, after all, this isn't the type of thing that goes on in the shadows);

2. if there is an increase, what is causing it.

My unsubstantiated belief (at this point) is that this $1 bus fare race to the bottom is having the obvious effect - maintenance is being cut back to preserve profit. (Even if this was not a commercial bus, the point still stands - we have had plenty of commercial bus flame-ups recently.) From a regulatory standpoint, too, I would be surprised to learn that the regulations concerning commercial bus maintenance are anything like those for, say, commercial aircraft. It appears, from my armchair at least, that the expected difference in results has been achieved.

More seriously, is anyone (at the state or federal levels) looking at this? Can you imagine if there was an "aircraft bbq" every couple of weeks/months at the same airport (given all these bus events on the same roadway) that people wouldn't be going nuts demanding safety upgrades?

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Different levels of concern for different levels of possible harm. The slightest glitch in an airplane could kill 200+ people. Nothing like that even remotely possible with a bus fire.

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A bus explodes (or the fricken front wheel comes off and it flips in the middle of the Pike), and kills the 50 people on board, plus a few in the resulting pile up.

Have we reached the required number of deaths to care yet? Also, there are plenty of commercial aircraft in service that seat only as many people as that bus, and which are subject to much higher regulatory standards.

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This was a charter bus, not a discount scheduled service.

Engine fires happen. They're not a big deal.

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Commercial airline safety is well under control by the National Transportation Safety Board. But NTSB seems to be AWOL on bus safety. I saw another charter bus burning on the Mass Pike earlier this summer that would have claimed lives of UConn students had they not hounded the driver to let them off before the bus burst into flames. If federal transportation safety officials don't devote more resources to bus safety ASAP, it's time for Sens. Ed Markey or Elizabeth Warren or another member of Congress to call a hearing to ask why.

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You didn't identify it in your post, and I can't see any logo on the bus in the photo.

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