Disney Bus in accident

[GADisneyDad14]

Every single time I drive after park closing I either encounter a vehicle with no headlights on or their headlights are on high beams.

Kind of funny (but not really) experience from earlier this year. We were taking a Minnie Van from CR to DAK and it was dusk/getting dark. The driver asked if we wanted to play a little game - guess the number of cars we pass without their headlights on. I sort of thought he was kidding, but no... I think our count got up to 8 by the time we arrived. Crazy.

 

[georgina]

I kind of understand the headlights. My car at home has automatic headlights that come on when it gets dark. (I do have to manually turn them on when it is raining, which many people fail to do.) some rental cars either don’t have the automatic lights or the switch is not set to the right setting. So while obviously dangerous, I can see why it happens. I always check out the lights and wiper controls before I leave the rental garage.

 

[Kickstart]

This is interesting perspective. We have always had a car at Disney (rental in 2013 and 2014). In 2015 we started to drive down from NYC (this year will be our 4th drive) instead of flying and I find driving at WDW to be pretty relaxing. It could just be that driving at home is so annoying now (too much congestion on local streets b/c of Uber and Lyft cars everywhere, etc. -- it's generally faster for me to bike anywhere locally than drive now)...but I really enjoy driving at WDW haha

Relaxing?
What route do you take and how much time (days) do you give yourself?
Coming from NYC, you have both NJ and DC to contend with.

We drove down from just outside of Philadelphia two years ago for a cruise. 95 is a white knuckle drive almost the whole way down. I booked a return on the Autotrain before our cruise departed

Thinking that maybe I timed the traffic wrong (didn't leave early enough?), we did a similar trip over the holidays this last December (down to Charleston SC to spend a couple nights, and then on to parents/grandparents in Sarasota)... basically the same experience... 95 is a nightmare IMO.

My advice to others thinking about driving down... unless you have a large group, extra vacation days to spare, and/or in your 20's... I really don't think it's worth the safety risk and added stress to drive.

 

[TinyTim2]

The Florida troopers are doing that with the yellow tape. I noticed it about 2 months ago on cars involved in wrecks on I 4. No clue as to why .

Jim, I don't think that was crime scene tape. It looks like straps to keep the jeep stable while on its side. You can see them in the picture in your link above as it is being loaded onto the flatbed.
[/QUOTE

 

[bluezy]

Relaxing?
What route do you take and how much time (days) do you give yourself?
Coming from NYC, you have both NJ and DC to contend with.

We drove down from just outside of Philadelphia two years ago for a cruise. 95 is a white knuckle drive almost the whole way down. I booked a return on the Autotrain before our cruise departed

Thinking that maybe I timed the traffic wrong (didn't leave early enough?), we did a similar trip over the holidays this last December (down to Charleston SC to spend a couple nights, and then on to parents/grandparents in Sarasota)... basically the same experience... 95 is a nightmare IMO.

My advice to others thinking about driving down... unless you have a large group, extra vacation days to spare, and/or in your 20's... I really don't think it's worth the safety risk and added stress to drive.

Maybe your timing was bad. We've made the drive from a little north of Philadelphia 8 times in the last 18 years and while the Philly/Wilmington, DC, Baltimore, and Richmond areas can be white knuckle driving at times, we find that once we're south of Richmond, it's clear and easy sailing until Jacksonville (where we *could* take the bypass but don't because we're usually passing through there at 9:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning so traffic is light). Then the last bit of I-4 is a bit white-knucklish as well mostly due to construction. We've had a few trips where we don't really hit a ton of traffic until Richmond -- breezing through Philly/Wilmington/Baltimore/DC with very little traffic and no delays. We always say that we'd have to drive through the worst traffic areas just to *get* to the auto-train. We can't imagine enjoying the Auto Train. I'm claustrophobic and would have to be medicated to even tolerate the ride. Plus, we prefer a nice comfy bed and shower at night as opposed to sleeping in a train seat or one of their highly claustrophobic panic-inducing sleeper rooms. I would get zero sleep on the train and the last thing I want to do is arrive at Disney World exhausted. We know several families in our area who love the Auto Train, but it has no appeal for us....maybe because we don't find the drive to Disney to be bad???? I'm glad people have that option, it's just not one I see us ever using.

When we make the drive to Disney we usually leave by 5:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning or we leave around 9:00 a.m. on a Friday. We do the drive down to Disney in 2 or 3 days. On the 2-day drive we drive about 14 hours (including numerous bathroom/gas stops and a nice leisurely lunch stop) on the first day and then have about a 4-hour drive the next morning. If we do the drive over 3 days we'll do about 7-8 hours on day 1, 8 hours on day 2, and 1-2 hours on day 3. We always do a 2-day drive on the way home. My husband has 28 vacation days to use up each year (outside of his 9 holidays) so adding the extra days for driving isn't a big deal for us (I realize it is for some people). Some of our kids are in their 20s/30s so we're way beyond 20s. And my husband does all the driving (his choice --he says I'm not aggressive enough because I'm content to just drive the speed limit in the right-hand lane. ) We like being on our own schedule, not having to worry about flight delays, and being able to pack whatever and how much we want. Flying (or taking a train) would be way more stressful for us. We enjoy the drive but I realize it's not for everyone.

And just to keep my post on topic with the original post, I don't think the bus windshield is shattered/broken, I think we're seeing the reflection of the Jeep in the windshield. JMO.

 

[Kickstart]

Thanks for sharing bluezy!

Leaving early in the morning definitely makes a huge difference. I wouldn't recommend anyone departing our area in the afternoon unless they were planning three days. Although, we know people that do the trip in one shot... I can't image trying to do that.

I was thinking about taking 81 most of the way instead (we're NW of Philly so it's not a big detour)... might do that one year and stop at a few places along the way. I just wish I had more vacation days.

I will say, the first time I took the autotrain, I thought we were going to derail that night!... I definitely didn't get a good sleep
But the kids loved it and the next time it wasn't as bad. Still not a real sleep, but I was more relaxed than I would have been driving.
And, it's expensive (for the rooms at least)... I'm glad we did it on the return trip a couple of times, but likely wont do it again soon.

yes, I kind of hijacked this thread... looks like that bus was just in the wrong place at the wrong time... when a jeep came rolling along (literally)

 

[rg35]

Relaxing?
What route do you take and how much time (days) do you give yourself?
Coming from NYC, you have both NJ and DC to contend with.

We drove down from just outside of Philadelphia two years ago for a cruise. 95 is a white knuckle drive almost the whole way down. I booked a return on the Autotrain before our cruise departed

Thinking that maybe I timed the traffic wrong (didn't leave early enough?), we did a similar trip over the holidays this last December (down to Charleston SC to spend a couple nights, and then on to parents/grandparents in Sarasota)... basically the same experience... 95 is a nightmare IMO.

My advice to others thinking about driving down... unless you have a large group, extra vacation days to spare, and/or in your 20's... I really don't think it's worth the safety risk and added stress to drive.

Driving at WDW is relaxing. But the drive down doesn't bother me at all.

We leave NY at around 4am on a Saturday so the NJ Turnpike is empty and the DC corridor is really not congested by the time we get down there. I use Waze for routing, but it's basically 95 the entire way. I set the cruise control at 70 and stay in the middle or right lane depending on how fast everyone else is driving. Southbound, Waze always sends us 895 through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and then 295 (Baltimore-Washington Parkway) and 395 through DC back to 95. We use the 395/95 express lanes in VA. Coming home, we get through DC early evening on a Saturday and there's not much going on in DC at that time.

The first two years we stopped over in Santee, SC on the way down. Last year we stopped in Savannah, GA and are doing the same this year. The return trip we have always just done straight through. My wife and I (both early 40s) split the driving and our kids (triplets, nearly 11) are pretty good in the car. At some point I assume we'll stop doing this, but it really beats spending around $2500 to fly 5 people non-stop from NYC to MCO and back. Our trips are normally 2 weeks, and we also like to rent a car, so it eliminates that expense as well.

 

[Darklord77]

The pictures don't really give me a good vantage point to tell what happened. I have a little bit of experience in these types of incidents and I can assume the Jeep was broadsided and pushed into the bus based on the damage that is noticeable. Looks like the Jeep hit the bus very close to the position it came to rest in. The bus acted like a fixed barrier and stopped the jeep from overturning further. All I can see is the final rest of the Jeep marked with paint. The crime scene tape is interesting. Only thing I can think of is the Jeep was unstable and the tape was used to keep people away. Definitely not used to stabilize it.

 

[sethschroeder]

Coming from NYC, you have both NJ and DC to contend with.

Drive from LGA to West of DC and vice versa at times. I will say the drive is cake honestly and other than NYC traffic isnt that bad you just need to time your drive to hit DC and Baltimore at off times. Philly you can completely avoid which I do most of the time.