Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2015-...shes-into-car/

I found the comments by Tfl, saying that the bus was checked by TWO separate checks and found there was no fault found of the bus or its computer.

And we have a driver without a job, and it was proven he was not at fault.

I have been driving various types of vehicles over a great number of years. BUT, l believe that buses are now AUTOMATIC, a vast change from years ago, when they were manual.

ON both counts, IF the driver of any vehicle takes there foot off the peddles, the vehicle shudders to a halt.

I have also driven a vehicle controlled by a computer (seriously) and in this day and age, there are systems on a bus / train etc that bring the vehicle to a halt. so why did the bus continue at fast speed.

IS, it that Tfl, wont take the blame or admit there was a fault on the bus

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Well if that computer malfunctions, it could have an effect on the brakes and/or accelerator.

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Could also have been a mechanical fault. When I was learning to drive, I went out with my mum once, in my dad's car, and the engine started racing, in a similar way to how it sounded like the bus engine did. I took my foot right off the accelerator and jammed the brake down (which did slow the car), but the engine carried on racing. I changed the gear to Neutral, which enabled me to stop the car safely and eventually managed to wrestle the engine to a stop.

Thankfully, neither my mum or I were injured, but the engine apparently needed a lot of work after that. IIRC, the throttle assembly in the engine itself had jammed, and I apparently did the best thing I could. Dad was a little peeved that I'd taken the car out and bought it back apparently needed a lot of very expensive work done on it, but was happy we were both safe.

I realise that cars and buses are very different beasts from a driving point of view (I am friends with a bus driver who did go on at some length about how different they are), and I realise that most (if not all) engines today are partly or totally computer controlled, so are very different beasts from engines made even 20 years ago, let alone 30, but I just posted this as a reminder that the fault could still be mechanical.

Having said that, I would have thought that as a safety precaution, the computer would have a sensor telling it that the throttle was open it would therefore register that, and would also register that it had not sent a command to open the throttle, and show the fault.

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Can't beat cable and return spring for reliability. Fly-by-wire is fine when you have built in redundancy as in aircraft. Be assured this will NOT be the case with road vehicles and the systems will be built down to a price and faults like this will occur more often.

Imagine the damage of a self parking car in reverse with a jammed throttle. :erm:

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

No electrical isolation switch?? Poor training if you ask me

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

So is Boris or Cameron to blame?

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

It states in the article that the driver had been driving buses for ten years so doubt it was poor training.

I think there must genuinly have been a problem.

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Diesel engines are known to sometimes "run away". What happens is that either the engine becomes badly worn, or that an oil seal fails in the turbocharger, and the engine then starts to suck in and run on its own engine oil.

Now, Diesels (unlike petrols) control engine power (the "throttle") by controlling the amount of fuel that's being injected in to the engine, rather than controlling the amount of air as with petrol engines. What happens when an engine runs away is that because the engine is sucking in hot (and therefore thin) engine oil (which is basically what diesel is) it starts accelerating, causing more oil to be sucked in, and the cycle continues.

Simply turning the ignition key or battery isolator off will not do anything, as this simply cuts off the flow of diesel, but as the engine is burning its own oil this does nothing. The only ways of stopping it are to try and stall it (risky as the engine is basically at full power, and impossible with an automatic), strangle its air supply (either by blocking the air intake or dumping something like CO2 from a fire extinguisher in to it) or simply selecting neutral and letting the engine blow itself to pieces.

I'm not sure if this type of bus engine is susceptible to this kind of failure, but I know many Turbo Diesel cars (mainly 1.9 Renault diesels) that have failed in the same way.

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Not Thatcher then? :D


Anyway, my late wife was badly injured in a train crash caused by a defective driver - do we ban them? :rolleyes:

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Try reading the story and its nothing to do with worn engines. Company claims a brake\accelerator confusion. Driver states faulty brakes. Either way they driver should have had training to cope.

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Tfl said it was tested, and found NO FAult WITH THE BUS

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Is there any job you have not done ?

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Can't think why. :D

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

he's either Britain's most experienced man or Britain's most sacked worker :)

Re: Runaway bus accelerates 'like a bullet' on London's streets and smashes into car
 

Theres been a number of issues in the news about these new route master busses. One of them was involved in an accident within 10 mins of leaving the depot on its first ever day out and it was rulled brake failure.