Smoke on the Bridge

Order matters more than speed:

1. Stop and secure - brakes on, hazard lights on, engine off, key where you can still reach it. A wheel toed in is not going anywhere.
2. Call 911 yourself, or point at one person: 'You in the red jacket - call 911, say northbound on the bridge, bus with 46 aboard, smoke from the right front wheel well.' A named person beats a general request.
3. Check for injuries and for fire. Is it brake or tire smoke, or is it coming from the engine bay or the interior? The source changes the answer.
4. Decide on evacuation. Smoke from a wheel well, in a live lane, on a bridge, with no shoulder, makes the bus both a fire risk and a stationary hazard. It is not the safer container.
5. If evacuating, get them out the doors on the barrier side, never into the traffic lane, and move them as a group away from the vehicle.

Announce it clearly: 'Leave everything, out this door, behind the barrier, walk toward the far end.' Bags and hesitation are what put people into traffic.

Treat the smoke as a fire until it is proven otherwise, and manage the traffic at the same time.

• Extinguisher - only if you can see fire, it is small, and you have a clear escape route behind you. On a wheel well fire, discharge from a distance or through the access port. Do not lie under the bus or open a cover wide; air feeds it. One extinguisher buys evacuation seconds, not a repair.
• Position - passengers behind the concrete barrier on the side away from oncoming traffic, upstream of the bus, so approaching drivers see people before they see the wreck. Nobody crosses a live lane.
• Traffic - hazards on; triangles or flares only if they can be placed without stepping into the lane. On a bridge, usually they cannot, so do not try.
• Group control - one capable adult at each end of the group, the three children with a named adult, and a head count against 46.
• Secondary risk - keep everyone clear of the crushed corner and the traffic side of the bus.

If flame appears, or the smoke turns black and fast, stop fighting it. Everyone goes immediately, away from the fire and off the lane.

The bus does not move. A crushed front corner and a wheel toed in means steering, and possibly the brake lines on that corner, are compromised. A tow is required; driving 400 m to the end of the bridge is not a shortcut, it is a second incident pending. Only a mechanic, or police controlling traffic, authorizes movement.

Reporting chain:

• Police - damage, a barrier strike and a live lane mean the collision is reported; your 911 call has already started the record.
• Carrier and dispatch - immediately, so a relief bus and driver are sent and the incident file is opened.
• Other driver - name, plate, licence, insurer, and witness details.
• Written account - time, weather, location, speed, what you saw, what you did, and the names of passengers who saw the car cross the line. Write it before memory reshapes it.
• Fitness - you have just been in a collision with 46 people aboard. If you are shaken, say so; the carrier must supply another driver, and company policy may require post-incident testing.

Finally, complete the defect and incident records so the damage and the out-of-service status are documented, not just discussed on the radio.