One to make the blood run cold

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Sun 19 Jun 2005 09:50
One to make the blood run cold - THe Growler
An accident (not uncommon) recently occurred in the remote mountainous N. Philippines when a bus laden with passengers careered into a ravine, killing 27.

The official accident report (they always do) gave the cause as the "bus losing its breaks" (sic). Now this means the bus line operator would have to have shouldered all the hospital costs and death payouts for the victims. Few if any except the main line operators have any sort of insurance.

Since all things are negotiable here, the public record later stated that it was "the driver losing control of his breaks", an entirely different scenario, whereby no one would get anything, except the driver, who would spend the rest of his life sleeping upright with floodwater up to his ankles in an overcrowded jail cell and eating rice with weevils.

But our driver must have been well-connected too, since a newspaper report two days ago announced that the conductor of the bus had now confessed (no doubt with some assistance) to "neglecting his daily duty of filling up the brakes with new fluid before each journey".

Further developments awaited.
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Sun 19 Jun 2005 11:39
One to make the blood run cold - artful dodger {P}
Ah, the joys of few regulations and inspections. Maybe this should be a wake up call to the authorities that they need to do more for the innocent road user.

I know we all moan in the UK about all our regulations and how they are enforced, but at least we know if we ride on a bus then it will be maintained to an adequate standard and the operator will be carrying insurance, similarly most other vehicles are road worthy.

Also the culprit of an accident will be taken through the Courts with an expectation of a reasonably fair trail without the law being bent by bribes.

Growler keep on posting as I love reading your messages as they do convey a different world from back home.
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Sun 19 Jun 2005 15:13
One to make the blood run cold - Miller
"....it will be maintained to an adequate standard........."

Don't bet on it, in my opinion the bus operator I work for gets away with murder (I will not elaborate or name names for obvious legal reasons).
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Sun 19 Jun 2005 23:11
One to make the blood run cold - Clanger
to "neglecting his
daily duty of filling up the brakes with new fluid before
each journey".


New brake fluid before each journey? That's some loss of fluid.

No air brakes over there? Air brakes are quite tolerant of leaks, and there's little evidence of same.
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
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