A short while ago, CNN posted this story on the internet:
cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news...oc=NW_1-L1
Quote:
Bus Crash Kills 12 on Mexico City Outskirts
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A bus carrying dozens of teenagers on a school field trip toppled off a bridge on the outskirts of Mexico's capital on Friday, killing 12 people and injuring at least 25, authorities said.
The bus was headed to a soft drink bottling warehouse when the crash occurred on a highway linking the capital and the central city of Pachuca.
Highway patrol officials said the bus driver was likely speeding when he struck a guardrail and careened off the Emiliano Zapata bridge, causing the vehicle to fall more than 25 feet to the highway below.
The students on board were between the ages of 15 and 18, authorities said. State and federal police were investigating the crash, but whether the driver was among the injured or dead was not clear.
Mexico's Public Education Secretary issued a statement saying 12 people had been killed and expressing its condolences.
03/17/06 22:46
Five days later, this is the "Top Story" that is all over the news, complete with picture:
cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news...loc=NW_1-T
Quote:
Chile Bus Crash Kills 12 American Tourists
By EDUARDO GALLARDO
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - A bus carrying cruise ship tourists plunged 300 feet down a mountainside in northern Chile Wednesday, killing 12 Americans, U.S. and Chilean officials said.Two other Americans and two Chileans - the driver and the tour guide - were hospitalized in serious condition following the crash along a rugged highway near the Pacific port city of Arica, 1,250 miles north of Santiago, said Juan Carlos Poli, an Arica city hall spokesman.
"We have confirmed that all the victims were American citizens,'' Poli told the Associated Press by telephone from the hospital.
The tourists were returning to Celebrity Cruises' ship Millennium, docked in Arica, from an excursion to nearby Lauca National Park when the crash occurred.
The driver reported that he lost control of the bus while swerving to avoid a truck approaching on a collision course, Poli said. The truck went off the narrow highway and tumbled nearly 300 feet down a mountainside.
He said the bus had a capacity of 16 passengers and "was totally destroyed.''
The accident occurred 25 miles northeast of Arica on the road to the Bolivian capital city of La Paz, he said.
U.S. Embassy spokesman John Vance, who also confirmed the 12 U.S. deaths, said the embassy was sending consular officers to Arica.
The ship was scheduled to leave for Peru early Monday, but the departure was postponed in the wake of the accident, police said. He said it isn't clear when it will leave.
A statement by Celebrity Cruises said the tourists were sailing aboard Celebrity Cruises' Millennium, but it was an independent private tour, not affiliated with the cruise line.
The ship was sailing a 14-night South American cruise that departed Valparaiso, Chile, on March 19 and was scheduled to conclude in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 2.
On the Web:
www.celebrity.com.
03/22/06 21:21
In a totally unrelated story, Bush has declared war on Chile.
Slap on "Americans" and what've ya got?
Bipitty Bopitty High Paying Story!
Either way, sucks on both accounts, and how damn eerie is it that it's the same amount of people dead and in almost the exact same situation. o.o
I'd say "owned" but that would be mean.
What's with these random bus crashes?
Now its just getting eerie.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4687860.stm
Quote:
Tourists die in Rome bus plunge
Last Updated: Tuesday, 7 February 2006, 12:51 GMT
The crash happened on a winding road on Rome's outskirts
Twelve Turkish tourists have been killed after their bus careered off a road into a ravine in Rome.
Almost 20 others among the tour party were hurt, at least four seriously, and were taken to hospital for treatment.Rescue workers worked through the night to remove people from the wreckage of the vehicle.
The bus was said to be carrying about 30 people. One report said they were Turkish car dealers returning from a dinner in central Rome.
The crash happened late on Monday, police said.
Site visit
The bus apparently failed to negotiate a bend in the road descending from Monte Mario, one of the hills in the Italian capital, AFP news agency said, citing rescue services.
Other reports said it plunged over the edge, falling about 20m (66ft) into the garden of a home in north-western Rome.
The Turkish ambassador to Italy and the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, visited the site of the crash on Tuesday morning.
Italy's Ansa news agency said the Italian bus driver was among the four who were critically injured.
It said the bus was one of eight carrying a total of about 350 Ford car dealers from Turkey, who had come to Italy for a conference.
archives.tcm.ie/breakingn...126540.asp
Quote:
Saturday, December 20, 2003 :
FRONT | IRELAND | SPORT | WORLD | BUSINESS | ENTERTAINMENT
12 dead in bus crash3:39:17 PM
Twelve people died and dozens more were injured when a German bus en route to Paris swerved off the highway at the Belgian-French border early today and burst into flames.
Authorities said the bus scraped against a concrete crash barrier causing a fire in the rear which then spread through the entire bus, leaving nothing but a blackened skeleton.
Five of the 37 injured were detained in hospital, two of them with serious burns, officials said. The others were treated for minor burns, cuts and bruises at hospitals around Hensies, a small town on the French border off the E19 highway.
The bus had departed for Paris on Friday afternoon from Munich, Germany, and was to return on Monday, said the bus company owner, Rainer Polster.
Most of the victims were college students who were trapped inside as the bus was engulfed by fire. They included Germans and several other nationalities, among them one American, one Croatian and some from Mongolia.
Belgian police notified the Russian Embassy in Brussels that as many as eight of the dead were Russian citizens, according to an embassy spokesman, who added that their identities had not been confirmed. The head of the Russian consular section was en route to the scene.
German Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe was also planning to visit the crash site and meet survivors, his spokesman said in Berlin.
Officials said the bus driver was among the dead, and his relief driver was among the 37 injured.
Rainbow Tours, which organised the trip, said there did not appear to be any technical problems with the bus, which was only one and a half years old. The Hamburg, Germany-based operator quoted witnesses as saying the driver lost control from causes still unknown and hit a concrete wall dividing the highway.
The bus skidded a few farther and went up in flames, it said in a statement.
Police said they were not ruling out the possibility that the driver had fallen asleep.
Witnesses told the Belgian news agency Belga that the second driver managed to get out of the bus through a window after the crash and open the rear door, enabling many of the survivors to escape.
Belgian Prince Philip and Interior Minister Patrick Dewael also visited the site Saturday.
Besides the obvious, what most of them have in common is that they happen near capitol cities and the bus falls from a great height. The last article I have mentioned here is the oldest and probally doesn't have a connection with the others. But the Rome one is dated February 2006...anyone besides me see a pattern here?
That's creepy. Four different buses fall from a great height and twelve people are killed in each one? If it is a coincidence, it's a very creepy one.
The last one dates from 2003, so I'd say no to that. The other three... it is kind of weird, but unless someone gets statistics on total number of bus accidents per year and sees whether 12 deaths is a statistically abnormal number (given the carrying capacities of these buses), I wouldn't worry about it.
