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[SephiZack]

A tour bus carrying visitors from China has caught fire on a busy highway near Taiwan’s capital, killing all 26 people on board, officials said, in the deadliest incident involving Chinese tourism to the island.

It said 24 of those on board were visitors from Liaoning province who had been scheduled to fly home on Tuesday afternoon. The others killed were the driver and a tour guide, both Taiwanese.

Lai Chi-chong, Taoyuan fire chief, said all of the victims died inside the bus. “There was not enough time for them to escape,” he told reporters.

Video from the scene showed both of the bus’s doors were pressed up against the highway’s guard rail, making them impossible to open.

Many of the bodies were badly charred, some of them piled in front of the unopened emergency exit, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency and other media reported.

There was no official word on the cause of the fire, although Taiwan’s official CNA and others reported that the bus apparently burst into flames after spinning out of control and smashing into the highway’s guard rail.

CNA cited eyewitnesses as saying the bus had been giving off smoke and swerving from lane to lane prior to crashing and bursting into flames.

The latest accident is likely to revive safety concerns surrounding the treatment of Chinese tourists, most of whom come on cheap group tours.

Condolences to their families.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/19/tourist-bus-fire-taiwan-deaths

 

[Jb]

Video from the scene showed both of the bus’s doors were pressed up against the highway’s guard rail, making them impossible to open.

This is so horrible. May they rest in peace.

 

[Blablurn]

Terrible way to go

RIP

 

[foxuzamaki]

So awful.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Did the bus not have one of these or did people panic and tunnel vision?

 

[HStallion]

They can only exit through the two sets of doors? I mean I don't know how safety regulations are in China but shouldn't there be a couple other emergency exit routes like a roof hatch or windows that pop out?

 

[linsivvi]

They can only exit through the two sets of doors? I mean I don't know how safety regulations are in China but shouldn't there be a couple other emergency exit routes like a roof hatch or windows that pop out?

It's not China.

 

[cruets]

They can only exit through the two sets of doors? I mean I don't know how safety regulations are in China but shouldn't there be a couple other emergency exit routes like a roof hatch or windows that pop out?

In Taiwan. They were on vacation tour group. Not in China

 

[SephiZack]

Did the bus not have one of these or did people panic and tunnel vision?

They can only exit through the two sets of doors? I mean I don't know how safety regulations are in China but shouldn't there be a couple other emergency exit routes like a roof hatch or windows that pop out?

It was probably a mixture of people panicking and rushing to the blocked doors and the fire spreading too fast (it was already smoking before crashing, maybe the people inside didn't notice until it was too late). I remember seeing roof hatches in buses when I was in Taiwan or some kind of emergency hammers.

EDIT Sometimes, even if a some people don't panic and try to get out of a situation like this, the 20 people that are panicking will make life harder for everyone and drag everybody else down with them.

 

[KHlover]

Video from the scene showed both of the bus’s doors were pressed up against the highway’s guard rail, making them impossible to open.

Sounds like a couple of those hammers could have saved lives here

RIP

 

[Chairmanchuck]

It was probably a mixture of people panicking and rushing to the blocked doors and the fire spreading too fast (it was already smoking before crashing, maybe the people inside didn't notice until it was too late). I remember seeing roof hatches in buses when I was in Taiwan or some kind of emergency hammers.

I think there are hammers in the taiwanese busses. Even the busses I went to in China had them.

Guess everything just happened too fast.

RIP

 

[pestul]

Wow, that is brutal. The emergency exit doors on the back should open outward.. it must have happened far too quickly. :/

 

[Sanjuro]

Wow, that is brutal. The emergency exit doors on the back should open outward.. it must have happened far too quickly. :/

Doesn't take much, also with the smoke. The photos are pretty telling.

 

[Baroquemantic]

How terrible. Rest in peace to all of them.

 

[GhostBed]

Jesus fucking christ. terrible way to go.

 

[otapnam]

Don't windows pop out with a lever or something?

Horrible way to go. Rip.

 

[Zukuu]

Incomprehensible how all died. Must have been really fast and the smoke was most likely the biggest issue.

Always sad to hear news like this. You're on vacation, happily enjoying your life and the next moment you are dead. =/

 

[SephiZack]

Incomprehensible how all died. Must have been really fast and the smoke was most likely the biggest issue.

Yeah from the pictures it looks like the smoke was huge so they probably weren't able to see well inside the bus

 

[Bsigg12]

Yeah from the pictures it looks like the smoke was huge so they probably weren't able to see well inside the bus

Damn.....

 

[darkhunger]

RIP.

Chinese tourism to Taiwan is already declining rapidly due to politics, so this news is happening at the worse time.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Yeah from the pictures it looks like the smoke was huge so they probably weren't able to see well inside the bus

looks like the they tried to break the furthest window from the outside, to no avail evidently

 

[SephiZack]

RIP.

Chinese tourism to Taiwan is already declining rapidly due to politics, so this news is happening at the worse time.

When my father (Chinese) told me about this news he was making conspirancy theories and saying that many Chinese people that go to Taiwan end in fatal accidents (he read about this in Chinese news), so I can see how this might affect Chinese tourism to Taiwan.

 

[Ghostmaster]

The speed of fire and smoke in enclosed areas is very scary, never thought it could be so fast until I saw it with my own eyes.

This sounds like an awful situation all around with the doors being stuck

 

[GifGafIsTheBestGaf]

that is a shit way to die, RIP.

 

[Dali]

The bus didn't have the escape hatch on the roof or the windows that pop open? Seems like a huge safety oversight. All that would need to happen for everyone to be trapped is for the bus to roll on the side with the doors, or in this case have them pinned against a rail.

 

[Raticus79]

Warning:

Watch out if you're clicking around those links - someone just posted photos of the burned bodies as a reply to the burning bus photo on twitter linked in that article (@XHNews). (1 hour ago)

 

[RS4-]

You know what, I actually didn't think about an exit strategy if something did happen on a tour bus that I was on.

I didn't look at the top if there was a hatch, or if some of the windows open up. Driver certainly didn't say anything about extinguishers, emergencies, anything to break windows.

 

[Kieli]

Is there emergency hatches and open windows for this situation?

 

[Dreamgazer]

When my father (Chinese) told me about this news he was making conspirancy theories and saying that many Chinese people that go to Taiwan end in fatal accidents (he read about this in Chinese news), so I can see how this might affect Chinese tourism to Taiwan.

The timing + stuff like this doesn't help:
http://m.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2016/07/19/472701/Tourism-Bureau.htm

http://www.thinkingtaiwan.com/content/5580

 

[Slayer-33]

Jeez, why can't those damn windows be easily dismounted and popped off from the inside?