About those 16th Street Delays this Morning – Metrobus Crash

by Prince Of Petworth August 15, 2016 at 9:00 am 25 Comments

bus

Thanks to Jake for sending around 6:45am:

“16th street southbound is currently closed due to a metro bus accident that looks like it involved another car and a tree. Tried to get a pic of it as I was stopped.”

Alert DC noted the accident was at 16th Street and Underwood Street NW.

And thanks to Justin for sending this shot:

bus2

Dogg

My friend sent me a good pic, its actually a double/accordion bus. Not sure how that happens
- ***
  
  I detest the accordion bus. I will let it pass and wait for the next bus to arrive. Without a dedicated bus lane, the accordion bus has a difficult time maneuvering through traffic. I would wager to guess there was someone illegally parked on 16th (there’s usually a minimum of 4 cars illegally parked between U and P on a daily basis), the bus had to swerve around the parked car, got cut off and over-corrected.
  - HaileUnlikely
    
    Post article says somebody else crashed into the bus first.
    - ***
      
      Yeah just that. I’m trying to imagine how fast that driver was going – sounded like they basically T-boned the bus in the accordion section.
      - HaileUnlikely
        
        That would be basically impossible, as 16th has a raised median on this block. I would be very interested in learning what the heck actually happened, but what I’m picturing is basically an ordinary sideswipe whose results were very weird because the mechanical properties of the accordion section of a bus are very weird.
Clueless

Wow, buses are more agile than I thought.
madmonk28

Wow, how is that even possible?
- That Man A
  
  Seriously
  that is a pretty big jump for that bus
Nancy

Unbelievable! And nobody was hurt?
L.

Holy crap! I am having trouble picturing how this even happened. I hope there were no injuries.
Commuting Nightmare

I see a promotion to Red Line operator in that driver’s future!
- Hmmm
  
  It sounds like there was a car involved and the driver of the car may have been at fault. I know a lot of metro drivers are deservedly criticized for their driving ability, but it doesn’t sound like this was the case.
  .
  I’m just amazed that no one of the bus was hurt. That must have been one hell of an impact for the bus to jump the wall like that.
  - LittleBluePenguin
    
    +1! Seriously, kudos to whoever managed to have that type of accident without anyone on the bus being hurt. I have no idea how that type of accident even happens, but yikes!
    - ***
      
      Someone call Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks… we got an Oscar winning film just waiting to be made here.
- jonah
  
  Because no one on the bus was injured when a car hit the bus?
- asdha;
  
  So inaccurate. You only get that promotion by blowing through a red signal with a metro train full of passengers. Check your facts.
cohidenizen

http://dcist.com/2016/08/photos_car_hits_60-foot_metrobus_se.php#photo-1

“The accident occurred at the corner of 16th Street and Underwood Street NW at around 6 a.m. this morning. According to Metro spokesperson Richard Jordan, the driver of a car hit the accordion portion of the 60-foot articulated bus. The bus, which was driving southbound, then went over the curb and hit a tree before stopping on a short wall on a person’s property…”

Driver taken to hospital for minor injuries, but no passenger injuries reported.
- lilkunta
  
  how did a driver hitting the accordion part of the bus makes the whole bus move onto the sidewalk?
  what kind of car wa sit ? a denali ? an escalade?
  
  i hope the bus driver will be ok.
- T
  
  The DCist article also says, “The driver of the car did not have any injuries, and received a citation for failing to keep in the proper lane, according to police spokesperson Aquita Brown.”
  
  The driver only received a citation?!? I may not understand the finer points of traffic tickets, but that makes absolutely no sense to me.
  - Anon
    
    I wasn’t here, but here’s what it sounds like happened:.
    .
    Bus and Car both traveling southbound on 16th. (Accordion) bus in the left lane, car in the right. Car wants to get over to the left lane, sees the end of the bus pass their peripheral vision. Not realizing that this is a double-length bus, car driver swerves into the left lane that should now be bus-free. Instead, car abruptly swerves left and hits the accordion part. Physics being physics, this action pushes the front of the bus to the right (you can easily replicate this experiment with two interconnected paper clips at your desk). Momentum being what it is (that’s a really heavy bus), the bus ends up hiking up the curb.
    - annonny
      
      And then it went airborne after hitting the curb? Hard to figure out it climbed up that wall. Were the bus and car travelling downhill on this stretch of 16th?
      - ***
        
        guessing it hit the wall on the low end, perhaps at the stair further up and then traveled down the length of the wall.
That One Guy

Wow, props to the driver for avoiding the tree or the pole. It’d be interesting to see the onboard video footage of what happened from the bus’s perspective.
Bloomingdale

With how ridiculous this is, I’m reminded of a line from the TV show Schitts Creek “In my defense that Prada looked a lot like a parking garage”
- anoone
  
  Haven’t heard of that show, that name is hilarious.

Subscribe to our mailing list