Safe transportation for evacuees.

[twinklebug]

I realize it's too late now, but the analyst in me keeps saying that the bus fire didn't have to happen. It was bad design & planning that needs to change asap.

I worked for two years with the DOT analyzing all type of possible rail, air and bus emergencies that might occur. Mostly we delt with gas and chemical transportation - leaks, punctures and breaches. I've seen many of the group's recomendations taken into effect and they have indeed made situations not as bad as they could have been, but this one with the evacuee bus with all the elderly patients on O2 has me in riled.

What is so hard about requiring nursing homes and hospitals with patients on oxygen to have an emergency transport bus of their own that has a seperate O2 tank isolated, insulated, and with emergency shut off valves incase of a fire? This should have been done years back.

I applaud the driver and others who were able to rescue the dozen or so people from the bus, but feel SO bad for them knowing they have seen the others, heard their voices pleading to them and were unable to get to them. The fire may not have been preventable, but the explosions were.

~sigh~ thanks for letting me vent.

 

[bicker]

I realize it's too late now

And hindsight is always 20/20.

What is so hard about requiring nursing homes and hospitals with patients on oxygen to have an emergency transport bus of their own that has a seperate O2 tank isolated, insulated, and with emergency shut off valves incase of a fire?

Money. That money has to come from somewhere, and faced with the choice of paying for things that are immediately necessary versus things that are possibly necessary in the future, very often people will choose the former.

 

[jgmklmhem]

And hindsight is always 20/20.

Money. That money has to come from somewhere, and faced with the choice of paying for things that are immediately necessary versus things that are possibly necessary in the future, very often people will choose the former.

I just think better ventilation would have made a world of difference. It wasn't the tanks that were the problem it was the high concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere of the bus that was the problem due to the use of the tanks.