Disney buses and their track record

[sjsjbrook]

I find it interesting that so many crashes of buses are now being reported.

Why you ask

On December 21 of 2007, my daughter and husband were on a bus coming out of Blizzard beach on their way back to okw. A truck ran into the side of the bus. The bus driver was hurt as was a few of their passengers. My daughter and husband were not hurt. This never made in onto any news, podcasts or anything

However my daughter was in shock when she got back to the hotel. It was her 13th birthday the next day. Whe definately was not very chipper the next day.

The only thing we ever heard from disney after the accident was a person coming to our room to ask us to fill out and witness report. No one ever checked to see if all was ok or even ask how we were doing.

To this day, my poor daughter has flash backs to this event. She has to take a city bus to school everyday, and some days when it makes sudden stops, she freaks out a little bit.

Our next trip we are renting a car and staying off the buses.

I am wondering how often crashes happened prior to this year that were never reported on.

 

[Kellygurlz74]

I'm glad you posted this, because just in the Podcast news thread about Disney, there are like 3-4 reports of bus accidents/incidents on there for just this month alone.

I personally however, have never had an issue on a disney bus, and hope that myself or anyone doesn't. I'm sorry to hear about what your daughter went thru. Accidents, whether they are on the bus or in your own car, will happen. And they suck. I'm really surprised that Disney only came around with a witness form. That is just really un disney like.

I have to give my .02 here too, I think Disney really needs to fix their transportation to & from the hotels/parks. I really think over crowding a bus where no one has room to stand is riduculous. I really think they really need to have the drivers slow down & quit rushing from one stop to the next. I think they need to put more buses on the routes as well. I don't know, more buses maybe less crowding, maybe less rushing etc etc.

During the DAP event, my friend and I were at the Boardwalk. We either walked to Epcot or MGM or took the boats. We did take the buses to Magic Kingdom, however it was during times where there weren't a lot of people heading to the parks. I for one will leave the parks early to beat the crowded buses or will wait until the last bus departs.

As Pete has said before....The cleaning lady shouldn't be in charge.

ok, my vent is done.

 

[truck1]

As a former driver, and also a trainer, I can tell you that the Busses arent in near as many accidents as poeple think. Disney is haveing a run of bad luck at the moment.Thats the best way to explain it.If I had to put a number on it, theres prob no more than 3-4 accidents in the average year. For what ever reason, this is an above average year. Most are the simple fender benders, where a guest has traded paint with a bus.Or vice versa.

Heres 1 of the things about the busses in general that alot of people dont know.Each individual route is given a certain length of time to do a round trip. For example.The All Stars DTD busses are on a 1 hour round trip, during peak times. Theres up to 10 busses assigned to the route. Thats a bus every 6 minutes.(perfect world)At some point,you can get too many busses on a route, and they will actually be in each others way.That will slow things down and make matters worse.
Second issue.
The new busses (the boxes on wheels.Ironically, all 3 of this months accidents involved this style of bus)dont sit 1/2 as many guests as the older RTS (round and higher floor busses).The older RTS sit between 35 and 45 guests depending on how they are configured. The new busses 15 if you are lucky.That leaves about 40-50 guests standing.Sometimes more.
One of the reasons I heard on why the switch, was that the wc lifts on the RTS were consistently breaking down.Plus new ADA laws required all new busses be 102 inches wide. So Disney in their infinite wisdom, got the new low floor busses, with the ramp, that is less reliable than the older lift system.9 out of 10 times when I used one of the ramps, a sensor would go stupid, not read the ramp as bing retracted, and not let the doors close, and let the bus move.oud have to shut the bus off, go outside, shut the batteries off, then turn them back on, and restart the bus to get the sensor to reset.A lot of times, the ramp would not deploy or retract at all, and wed have to find another driver, a special bar, and either push or pull the ramp into the bus.

As far as rushing, there is no simple solution to the problem.Disney has been steadly cutting back on the number of drivers at a given hub, and when 1 bus is late it has a cascade effect on the rest of the day.1 bus late means the next driver is going to be late getting his mandatory break, which means the breaker is going to be late for his next bus which means someone is going to be late going home which creates overtime.Multiply that by 3 or 4 busses running late and things can get bad quick.This is on top of the guest wait times.Also, there is no driver recert or refresher training.So theres no incentive/penalty for a driver that has"issues"
Drivers are only allowed to drive a certain number of hours per day,per week and in any 80 huor period.Its also mandatory to be off for a minumum of 8 hours between shifts.Thats set in stone and is state law.A driver can be fined by DOT for the infraction,or penalizied by management by going over hours. I went round with that one one day during a holiday driving the old super bus, because a manager made a mistake on my hours.

 

[dalt01]

I find it interesting that so many crashes of buses are now being reported.

Why you ask

On December 21 of 2007, my daughter and husband were on a bus coming out of Blizzard beach on their way back to okw. A truck ran into the side of the bus. The bus driver was hurt as was a few of their passengers. My daughter and husband were not hurt. This never made in onto any news, podcasts or anything

However my daughter was in shock when she got back to the hotel. It was her 13th birthday the next day. Whe definately was not very chipper the next day.

The only thing we ever heard from disney after the accident was a person coming to our room to ask us to fill out and witness report. No one ever checked to see if all was ok or even ask how we were doing.

To this day, my poor daughter has flash backs to this event. She has to take a city bus to school everyday, and some days when it makes sudden stops, she freaks out a little bit.

Our next trip we are renting a car and staying off the buses.

I am wondering how often crashes happened prior to this year that were never reported on.

who's truck was it?

 

[sjsjbrook]

Just a normal cube van truck, not a disney truck. He was totally at fault, not the bus as he ran the light.

It just never made the news anywhere.

 

[Commando2319]

I wonder what if the drivers rushing or packing on so many guests happen more during peak times of the year or non-peak times?

I would guess that during peak times, there are so many more people that they are forced to have more buses than non peak times. And that the routes get so full with Buses that they don't need to be jammed packed with as many people cause the next bus is already there.

But mere guessing. What does anyone else think?

 

[FireDancer]

As a former driver, and also a trainer, I can tell you that the Busses arent in near as many accidents as poeple think. Disney is haveing a run of bad luck at the moment.Thats the best way to explain it.If I had to put a number on it, theres prob no more than 3-4 accidents in the average year. For what ever reason, this is an above average year. Most are the simple fender benders, where a guest has traded paint with a bus.Or vice versa.

Heres 1 of the things about the busses in general that alot of people dont know.Each individual route is given a certain length of time to do a round trip. For example.The All Stars DTD busses are on a 1 hour round trip, during peak times. Theres up to 10 busses assigned to the route. Thats a bus every 6 minutes.(perfect world)At some point,you can get too many busses on a route, and they will actually be in each others way.That will slow things down and make matters worse.
Second issue.
The new busses (the boxes on wheels.Ironically, all 3 of this months accidents involved this style of bus)dont sit 1/2 as many guests as the older RTS (round and higher floor busses).The older RTS sit between 35 and 45 guests depending on how they are configured. The new busses 15 if you are lucky.That leaves about 40-50 guests standing.Sometimes more.
One of the reasons I heard on why the switch, was that the wc lifts on the RTS were consistently breaking down.Plus new ADA laws required all new busses be 102 inches wide. So Disney in their infinite wisdom, got the new low floor busses, with the ramp, that is less reliable than the older lift system.9 out of 10 times when I used one of the ramps, a sensor would go stupid, not read the ramp as bing retracted, and not let the doors close, and let the bus move.oud have to shut the bus off, go outside, shut the batteries off, then turn them back on, and restart the bus to get the sensor to reset.A lot of times, the ramp would not deploy or retract at all, and wed have to find another driver, a special bar, and either push or pull the ramp into the bus.

As far as rushing, there is no simple solution to the problem.Disney has been steadly cutting back on the number of drivers at a given hub, and when 1 bus is late it has a cascade effect on the rest of the day.1 bus late means the next driver is going to be late getting his mandatory break, which means the breaker is going to be late for his next bus which means someone is going to be late going home which creates overtime.Multiply that by 3 or 4 busses running late and things can get bad quick.This is on top of the guest wait times.Also, there is no driver recert or refresher training.So theres no incentive/penalty for a driver that has"issues"
Drivers are only allowed to drive a certain number of hours per day,per week and in any 80 huor period.Its also mandatory to be off for a minumum of 8 hours between shifts.Thats set in stone and is state law.A driver can be fined by DOT for the infraction,or penalizied by management by going over hours. I went round with that one one day during a holiday driving the old super bus, because a manager made a mistake on my hours.

Thanks for the insight. I love finding out about the behind the scenes business that happens at Disney almost as much as the parks themselves. This is especially true of the logistics and the technology.

Even with all of the accidents I feel 100% safe on the buses. It isn't that I don't think anything can happen because of course accidents happen. It is because with the number of bus routes and passengers they move the incidents of accidents are low. Anyone who thinks that the roads down there would be safer if all of those people on the buses (or even a significant subset of them) were driving cars is not thinking it out. If we were talking about a standard city were all of those passengers knew the roads that wouldn't even be true. Now, take into account not only the normal rate of accidents but the added frequency that comes with so many drivers that don't know the roads and you would have a lot more accidents.

Perhaps Disney needs to rethink some procedures to make the buses even safer but I think overall they really do a good job of keeping their guests safe.

 

[aggielawyer]

Even with all of the accidents I feel 100% safe on the buses. It isn't that I don't think anything can happen because of course accidents happen. It is because with the number of bus routes and passengers they move the incidents of accidents are low...

This is what I was thinking as I listened to the podcast. Also, I think that this is like the shark attacks from several summers ago, or the rash of incidents involving groping, etc in the water parks a year or two ago--these stories make the news in quick succession and it seems like there's a huge number when in reality it's not any more than average.

 

[Cherinva]

I still feel safe also...I've never had a bad experience