Bus mishap, experts point to human error
Hyderabad: A safety expert with one of the private travels in the city says that the most Volvo buses are thoroughly tested for safety at the factory. He ruled out any technical error that might have caused fire. He gives us three possible scenarios of what might have happened.
As soon as the tyre burst happened, the rim would have touched the ground and due to friction, sparks would have started the fire. Going by the initial reports that the fuel tank hit a culvert after the tyre burst, fire would have broken out and fast as the capacity of the tank is 550 litres.
People might argue that diesel slowly catches fire but one has to accept the fact that it is an AC bus and has silk curtains and woollen shawls. Another possible explanation is that there might be crackers in the luggage stored in the boot space, that would have caught fire.
Short circuit might have also happened. The contents of the bus like the dash board, seats, steering etc are made of poly urethane which can
catch fire easily.
'Usually it takes 15-20 minutes for the bus to burn, giving passengers a window to escape. But looking at what happened today one has to suspect that the bus might be carrying crackers', he added. The police are also suspecting that crackers were being transported as luggage in the boot space.
News Posted: 31 October, 2013
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