Photo: Screenshot from video by smh.com.au
Australia has had several bus fires in recent months, and investigators have begun to release their conclusions after carefully analyzing each vehicle.
Along with the assessment of the wreckage, investigators had also monitored CCTV coverage from each of the vehicles that were functional when they burned down. One of the videos has revealed a concerning situation that occurred in a bus fire that took place last September.
Investigators have discovered that the passengers of the bus that was engulfed in flames on the Sydney Harbor Bridge were evacuated in just 15 seconds, and that nobody was seriously injured thanks to quick reaction times from everyone involved.
A closer look at surveillance footage revealed that an unnamed man got back on the flaming bus and swiped his Opal card.
The Opal fare system is a subscription-based service that requires users to swipe their cards when entering and when leaving vehicles. Similar services are applied in numerous countries across the world, and each of them asks their users to be sure to swipe their tickets/cards whenever the get on or off a public transport vehicle.
Those that do not abide the rules will end up with a significant surcharge, which is a negligible consequence when it is compared to the risk of a fiery death in a bus. That was not the case for the unidentified man that fought black smoke and fire to swipe his card in a bus that could have exploded at any moment.
As Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald notes, the said passenger did not risk a surcharge because he did not swipe his card when leaving the flaming bus. Just like the other 21 passengers that were evacuated, the charge was concluded by default when the bus was overwhelmed in flames.
Jim Donovan, a representative of passenger advocates Action For Public Transport, noted that the person should have stayed well clear of the fire in this case, because the Opal system only allows people to swipe their cards to leave the bus when it is at a stop.
That means that the whole “risk-your-life to avoid the surcharge” part was for nothing. Hopefully, others have learned a valuable lesson here.
Investigators have discovered that the passengers of the bus that was engulfed in flames on the Sydney Harbor Bridge were evacuated in just 15 seconds, and that nobody was seriously injured thanks to quick reaction times from everyone involved.
A closer look at surveillance footage revealed that an unnamed man got back on the flaming bus and swiped his Opal card.
The Opal fare system is a subscription-based service that requires users to swipe their cards when entering and when leaving vehicles. Similar services are applied in numerous countries across the world, and each of them asks their users to be sure to swipe their tickets/cards whenever the get on or off a public transport vehicle.
Those that do not abide the rules will end up with a significant surcharge, which is a negligible consequence when it is compared to the risk of a fiery death in a bus. That was not the case for the unidentified man that fought black smoke and fire to swipe his card in a bus that could have exploded at any moment.
As Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald notes, the said passenger did not risk a surcharge because he did not swipe his card when leaving the flaming bus. Just like the other 21 passengers that were evacuated, the charge was concluded by default when the bus was overwhelmed in flames.
Jim Donovan, a representative of passenger advocates Action For Public Transport, noted that the person should have stayed well clear of the fire in this case, because the Opal system only allows people to swipe their cards to leave the bus when it is at a stop.
That means that the whole “risk-your-life to avoid the surcharge” part was for nothing. Hopefully, others have learned a valuable lesson here.
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