In its latest report the BBC notes, "Details have been slow to trickle out." I know that's right. The Toronto Star alludes to one detail, "tons of steel — slamming into them at a rural intersection," but is that detail correct? Is it the semi trailer that slammed into the bus?
The bus is at bottom right, it's front end sheared off or accordioned out of recognition. Consistent with being the slammer. The driver's side of the bus is undamaged. Ditto.
In this photo one can better see the front of the tractor trailer:
Appears undamaged.
A closeup of the front of the bus:
Here is a forensically excellent wide aerial shot:
All of the energy and motion implied in this photograph is from upper right starting with the skid marks, then the bus, through to center, the tractor trailer (which you can clearly see here has NO damage AT ALL to its front end), and continuing through center left to near bottom left. The debris field is right around the impact site on the semi, which appears bowed in addition, and away from the tractor trailer. Those blue containers at center and lower left got knocked there.
Here is a forensically excellent wide aerial shot:
No. Based just upon these four photographs, Toronto Star, you owe a correction: The bus was the slammer, the semi, the slammee. But there is more.
The driver of the bus was killed. The driver of the tractor trailer was unhurt, questioned by police and released. Both consistent with the bus being the slammer.
One of the players on the bus was told that they had taken a side impact. "I felt it from the front."
Details indeed have been slow to trickle out but this much has and they, especially the photos, are, to me (no crash expert), conclusive. The Humboldt "Broncos" bus slammed into the tractor trailer.
*UPDATE. Does that mean the deceased driver of the bus was at fault? NOT according to details (and photographs) provided by the National Post:
According to RCMP, the accident happened when the tractor trailer going west on Highway 335 collided with the Broncos team bus, which was going north on Highway 35.
...
At the intersection, stop signs are in place for traffic going east and west [truck] across Highway 35, the bigger artery. The stop signs include flashing lights above them. The image below is a street view of Highway 335, facing east.
A farmhouse is located on the southeast quadrant of the crossing. There are trees lining the southeast corner of the intersection, limiting visibility on both approaches to the intersection.
Details indeed have been slow to trickle out but this much has and they, especially the photos, are, to me (no crash expert), conclusive. The Humboldt "Broncos" bus slammed into the tractor trailer.
*UPDATE. Does that mean the deceased driver of the bus was at fault? NOT according to details (and photographs) provided by the National Post:
According to RCMP, the accident happened when the tractor trailer going west on Highway 335 collided with the Broncos team bus, which was going north on Highway 35.
...
At the intersection, stop signs are in place for traffic going east and west [truck] across Highway 35, the bigger artery. The stop signs include flashing lights above them. The image below is a street view of Highway 335, facing east.
A farmhouse is located on the southeast quadrant of the crossing. There are trees lining the southeast corner of the intersection, limiting visibility on both approaches to the intersection.
Looking southeast.
Oh my God, they didn't see each other.
That farm and those trees could not be more perfectly positioned as a hellish double blind for both the bus and the truck...
Looking due north.
...Which makes the stop sign and flashing light that the truck had at the intersection KEY. It is apparent to me anyway that the truck did not stop at the stop sign, he just motored right on through it. The stop sign and flashing light are UNOBSTRUCTED. The truck driver had to have seen them. And if he had stopped at the stop sign/flashing light his vision to his left, the bus, would have been UNOBSTRUCTED, he would have seen the bus. The bus would have seen him. He didn't stop, I don't know what other conclusion can be drawn from these photographs. If NP is accurate (and they are well respected), and there is a stop sign and flashing light right there where I have circled, then the truck driver is at fault, he ran the stop sign/flashing light, the bus driver never saw him until it was too late, the bus would have "slammed" into the truck right there where the black skid marks begin.
But what gives me tremendous pause with NP's account is that the Mounties let the truck driver go. It's not even a criminal investigation! Now, I know we are different countries, BUT, we share the identical common law heritage from Merry Ol' and a few miles south of Humboldt where I call home if I run a stop sign with flashing light and a crash occurs I have caused the crash. And if 15 people die in the crash I caused by running the stop sign I am hauled off to the Royal Canadian Grey Bar Hotel and charged with 15 counts of vehicular manslaughter.
But what gives me tremendous pause with NP's account is that the Mounties let the truck driver go. It's not even a criminal investigation! Now, I know we are different countries, BUT, we share the identical common law heritage from Merry Ol' and a few miles south of Humboldt where I call home if I run a stop sign with flashing light and a crash occurs I have caused the crash. And if 15 people die in the crash I caused by running the stop sign I am hauled off to the Royal Canadian Grey Bar Hotel and charged with 15 counts of vehicular manslaughter.
