YuYu reported around 9:15am. And Fray updates us with a little commentary:
Kingman Park
That’s 12th and NY Ave. :)
goaldigger
Going down the wrong way on New York Ave. Metro and police still processing the scene (I can see this from my office window).
***
A little more context would be nice. I often see drivers on 16th whip around the bus to make right turns from the middle lane in front of the bus, so I could easily see this being the result of an impatient and reckless driver. I usually cut the bus drivers some slack – I would not want their job. At least in my own car I can scream and curse at bad drivers and no one is the wiser.
ajr
Have some patience. The folks who submitted these probably stumbled upon the accident on their way to work and wanted to warn others of the traffic and weren’t there when it happened. (Also I agree those drivers need patience of their own, I wait behind buses that get stuck due to cars flying around them to take right turns from the left lane daily at H/13st St).
FridayGirl
+1 to those cars that cut off buses. I see them all the time going north on 18th as well. And I also would not want the bus drivers job. Some of them may be pretty bad at it, but I am convinced I would quit after a day or two.
walker
Understanding that an accident could certainly be the fault of another driver and that we shouldn’t necessarily blame the bus driver, I would at least hope the bus driver’s instinct would be to hit the car in front of them and not *drive onto the sidewalk* where they could easily kill pedestrians.
Evan Tupac Grooter
If the choice is crash into a car or drive onto an empty sidewalk, you would pick hitting the car?
Truxton Thomas
Looks like the driver just turned too early. Must be new to this route, or didn’t get a scheduled break close to a preferred choice of restaurants.
Lexicon
I agree that it looks like the driver turned too early – perhaps it is because they are new to the route and unfamiliar with New York Ave.? Are there a lot of “new to route” drivers on other routes recently/this summer?
I ride the D6 to work 3 days a week and I would say at least one day per week, every week this summer, we’ve had a driver who’d never driven the route before. This frequently results in missed stops and missed turns which then means they spend an extra 10-15 minutes trying to get back onto the regular route. Needless to say, causes quite a bit of consternation among riders on the bus or those waiting at stops that get skipped. I’m pregnant so have been sitting at the front of the bus a lot recently and so when this happens I help the driver out as much as I can until I get off.
I get that occasionally stuff happens and Metro may have to rely on drivers unfamiliar with routes but I’ve been surprised with how frequently this has occurred this summer. I’ve been using the D6 since 2012 and could probably count on one hand the number of times this occurred before this summer. Is it somehow SafeTrack related (more buses but not enough drivers for the route?)?
***
I think WMATA rotates the drivers routes every 3-6 months. I remember overhearing 2 drivers discussing this.
Bob
This used to happen probably at least twice a month when I lived on Lee Highway in Arlington. We’d get a substitute driver who didn’t know the route at all and it was basically up to the passengers to tell them where to go. It’s like Metro doesn’t even make them look at the route map on the back of the pamphlet in the bus.
JTM
See my post below. The driver was unwell, it didn’t have anything to do with not knowing the route.
PMac
He was a regular on the route. My friend and coworker was actually on the bus when it crashed. The driver had a medical emergency and he actually passed out momentarily while behind the wheel. She also stayed on the scene and talked to him until first responders arrived.
JTM
I was on this bus. The driver was in a diabetic daze of some sort, he was not responsive to the passengers. We were going in the opposite direction of the bus route – should have been heading east on K St and he made a wrong turn. Then he nearly turned down 12th in the wrong direction, but realized what he was doing and that is how we ended up on the curb. The driver was in a state of shock but he was able to get off the bus. I hope he is ok.
ajr
That sounds terrifying – I’m glad you and the others on the bus are OK. Thanks for the update.
FridayGirl
Yeah, that does sound terrifying. I hope he is okay, too.
Kingman Park
That makes the second picture seem a tad insensitive lol
skj84
Yep. This is why we think before we post. I thought it could be a medical episode.
well
hope the driver is ok. and that he’s not allowed to drive again for a while until any medical conditions stabilize.
Truxton Thomas
Sounds scary for everyone, driver included. I retract my snark. Sorry, everybody.
Kingman Park
You need to track down the bus driver and apologize to him.
Wheels
I walked by this going to work, how did the front right side of the windshield get cracked?
JTM
I don’t know what happened to the windshield, I wondered the same thing. The bus hit the curb so hard that perhaps it just shattered at impact?
Count of Cleveland Park
Actually, it looks to me like the driver was making a left and misjudged his front-right overhang causing the front of the bus to become lodged over the curb. This can happen often in older cities like DC where the streets and curbs are fairly nonuniform. When making a left into the far right lane, the driver is cognizant that there’s a fair amount of empty space under the front right doors before the tires, the air cushion that the body rides on allows the driver to swing that empty space out over the curb, thus allowing him to “swing wider” to make it onto a more narrow street. unfortunately, if the curb is too high, the air cushion cant provide enough lift, and the front end will “run aground” on the curb. I’m only speculating based on the photos, but that sort of looks like what’s happened here. I used to drive the same Low-Floor Orion buses for our university student-run bus company in undergrad.
Clear 
