The reason you are reading this article in the first place, is probably because you might have read the news about a disastrous bus accident, or have witnessed one firsthand, or just planning to be safe and you believe in being prepared. In any case, this article has just the right information to have you prepared for such a scenario where you need to escape from a bus. Your decision to be prepared and take necessary action instead of being passive, is a great new step in averting or preventing any mishap and to have a safe journey.
Most of the 52 passengers who were on-board the ill-fated bus that struck a culvert and engulfed into flames were under 30 years of age. They were travelling home for Diwali celebrations and most of the bodies were charred beyond recognition and DNA analysis needs to be performed in order to make a positive identity.
The lack of standard protocols about the maximum cruising speed, health check for drivers, etc. is a grave concern for public health and safety and there is a need for the Government to enforce these protocols for the sake of safe transit of buses.
The incident caused a few of us in SCI, to think about the basic question; "What if something could be done by a few passengers which could have saved more lives?"; "Can anything be done at an individual level to save oneself?"
The article below is the accumulation of those ideas and even with some rapid active measures, how a few lives could be saved. At an individual level, this article will help us to be vigilant and prepared in case such a scenario unfolds in front of our eyes.
Let's look at a few cases about how to avoid a mishap or to deal with it.
Case 1: Prevention
The best way of escaping a bus mishap is to prevent it.
Make your best possible attempt to prevent it by being a good citizen. Before a potential Mishap:
Plan to stay awake. Irrespective of the length of your trip, stay awake. That gives you an edge about what's happening in your surroundings and any unexpected event won't catch you off guard. Get a good 8 hour sleep before you travel or a 4 to 5 hour sleep atleast in case you are traveling after work.
When you board the bus, greet the driver with a smile and, wish him a pleasent drive.
Example: Say, "Hello, Wish you a pleasant drive" with a smile. If you get a chance to talk to him casually about anything simple, like the weather, etc. just so that you and the driver know each other and there's a basic level of acquaintance and trust between you two for the rest of the journey.
This takes courage to do it, because it's not part of our culture considering the majority of times we just go about boarding with a serious grin. But doing so would drastically increase the probability of survival of a potential mishap because the driver and you know each other well enough to start coordinating simple maneuvers during a potential evacuation.
During the journey look out for erratic driving behavior like sudden jerks during your travel, specially at nights. Observe the centrifugal forces acting on your body to get an idea. For instance, if the driver is trying to avoid oncoming traffic at speeds that jerk your attention off of what you're doing, or if your body is shifting towards the opposite direction of the turning direction of the bus more than it should, with a sudden jerking motion, and if it keeps repeating more than two to three times, make an attempt to stop him from doing so.
Go to the driver and say to him in the most concise manner, "Please drive smoothly. I'm taking notice and would give a feedback to the travel agency." Give the same information in written on a piece of paper if you think you will be disturbing him and diverting his attention and put it near him and get back to your seat. This should make him aware that people are watching and he is most likely to drive in a more alert state of mind.
Even after this in case he drives more erratically, call the Travel agency and let them know that your journey is not so pleasant as it should be. If this further repeats even after doing so, call the police and let them know that you feel unsafe in your journey because of this. Call 108 and tell them your situation and your whereabouts.
Promptly give a feedback to the Travel agency about how your trip was and what you think would make the trip better next time. Even if the suggestions are a bit too vague, this will help on the long run because the travel agencies need to evaluate all the feedback always and they will pick a significant percentage of important suggestions from the lot.
Case 2: Hazards
Hope our journey safely ends but In case "A mishap happens"
Lets first discuss about some basic essential items that we Must have before we being a journey
What you need before you travel. Here's a list of what we need to have before we start traveling as a compulsory set of items most of which you might already be taking with you all the time.
- Pen and a small stick pad,
- A Cell phone with 100% charge
- Water bottle (1 liter)
- A small hammer that can fit in your pouch(listed where to purchase)and
- A pocket fire extinguisher (listed where to purchase, if you can't get it that's fine too)
- Some candy worth the calorific value of 2000 Calories (For sustenance during crisis)
- A small travel pouch (which can fit in the 6 inch sledge hammer)
The thought of carrying a hammer and the fire extinguisher with us makes us feel like being a stereotypical paranoid elderly old person from the 1900s OR, you might think yourself as Thor, the God of thunder from Asgard, in Viking mythology wielding his mighty hammer protecting his 9 realms, depending on what kind of a person you are.
I think of myself as Thor when I do such a thing as my primary objective is to get out alive. (Most obviously :P ).
But whatever you might think, look at the images of the post disaster situation of the charred Volvo bus above. That image is exactly why we're designing a contingency plan. We would want to do whatever it takes to prevent this.
In order to simplify our actions, we would like to divide the scenarios into levels of Hazard and we have 3 levels of hazards from all the situations we came across in life, news and friends' stories.
Level 1 Hazard: Breakdown of the bus
In a remote case, if there is a bus breakdown, due to causes unforeseen, like a fuel tank blockage or a blown out tire, and the bus needed to make a halt in the middle of nowhere, the first thing we need to do is staying calm and alert. Freaking out will lead to irrational thoughts and actions and we should try our best to avoid that. By staying calm and thinking that everything will be alright, we will be taking the necessary action for getting to safety for not only ourselves but our family and fellow travelers.
So, while the bus is at a halt, the driver and the conductor would most likely know what to do and would be having a set of protocols to follow. From your side, see if your fellow travelers are okay or if someone needs water or anything. Look for the the right time and approach the driver and ask him if he needs any help with anything for fixing the issue. If he asks for help, try to assist him fixing the issue. Make sure you don't cross the path of oncoming traffic whatsoever. Try to be as far away as possible from the main road if you need to get out of the bus. Don't loiter away from where the bus has halted or into the dark if it happens at night.
In most cases the issue will be fixed within the hour and the journey resumes. In case that's not happening and you need to stay halted more than required, make sure you keep yourself adequately hydrated with the water you have and stay alert. Reassure your fellow passengers that everything will be alright. Positive attitude is highly contageous as you might have already experienced at some point in your life and your optimism would cheer up others in staying calm and positive.
In another scenario where it's more of a disaster where people get injured, like the bus falling on it's, look for signs of injury and don't panic. Try to feel your arms, legs, neck and head are okay and you are not immobilized by a serious injury. Keep calm and leave the bus one after the other and avoid a stampede. Help children and elders if possible.
In case you see your fellow passengers are in a panic mode and are rushing, just tell them to calm down and don't let people trample over you or don't get tempted to rush out of the bus. Everyone can get out of most situations one by one and in most situations there is always time to escape.
Level 2 Hazard: Smoke Billowing out of the window.
In case there is a lot of smoke billowing up into the interior of the bus, and you feel that getting out of the bus through the main entrance is not going to be possible for a long time, you might have to break open the window near you and jump out of the window. Make an attempt to do the following.
1. Take the hammer that you brought with you, and ask the adjacent passenger to move aside from the window.
2. Hold the hammer in such a way that the head of the hammer is parallel to the window near you. The hammer's handle should be clasped in your left hand so that the head is on the side of your Pinky finger and away from your thumb. Place your right hand on top of the grip on the other end so that your palm would be pushing the grip perpendicularly.
3. Stand near the window facing the other side and with a swift circular motion of your torso, hit the window hard with the hammer head in an attempt to break it open. If the window doesn't seem to have broken, make an attempt multiple times to accomplish the task.
Here is the reason we are doing this. The situation calls for swift evacuation of the structure. If we utilize most of the muscles in our body to do it, it's more likely that we achieve the desired result.
Paddle boarders and surfers paddle their boards using their biceps, shoulders and their core body strength and the way they hold the paddle is similar to the way we hold the hammer. The circular motion enables us to gain rapid movement with the help of our code abdominal muscles and would be highly efficient.
Also it is a safe alternative rather than facing the window when breaking it because we would be facing the other side and our eyes and face are away and would avoid getting injured by flying glass debris. In the image below, the rotation motion of the torso and the way the hammer is held is depicted.
Hammer in the picture for demonstration only and the one you carry should be much more compact and not as big
4. Great job! You've broken the window so now you and your fellow passengers can escape from it. But, When the window shatters, it is likely that the broken panes hang around because the glass of a bus might be laminated and plastic based fiber holds the glass together as a safety mechanism.
Clear the broken glass with your hand covered in the pouch that you brought with yourself to avoid cutting your hand with the shattered glass. Clear up most of the window so that you have adequate space to crawl out of the window.
5. Once you cleared the window and it's safe to crawl out of the enclosure, look through to find any hazardous terrain outside like thorns, rocks, etc. and make sure you land on your feet when you jump out. Cover up your face with your hands in a "blocking" style position of a kick-boxer and roll over when you hit the ground to distribute the amount of force.
6. Pass on the hammer to the fellow passengers and help people get out of the window.
Level 3 Hazard: A Crash and fire inside the bus
At this point, we would like to emphasize that this kind of situation is life threatening and swift action is needed for survival. Each second is as important as all the good things you experienced in your entire life combined. Doing the following would help you come out alive.
As soon as you regain composure from the crash take notice of the fire inside the bus,
1. Take out the canister of fire extinguisher you brought with yourself and try putting it out in and around where you are. If you don't have an extinguisher, pour the water over yourselves from the bottle you have brought. Make sure you don't spend more than 5 to 10 seconds to do so. This step is designed only to increase your chance of not getting burnt while implementing the next steps and to extinguish the fire in your proximity. This action is the predecessor of what you are planning to do next and a prerequisite.
2. Take one deep breath and Follow all the steps except step 6 you did for the Level 2 Hazard. Avoid breathing the toxic fumes emanating from the flames because it will render you unconscious and helpless.
3. After you have broken the window and got out of the bus, move away from the bus and go as far as possible to avoid getting engulfed in a potential explosion. Your fellow passengers should be very shortly following you with gut instinct.
This is not a Golden rule for disasters but this is the best one can do to survive and the purpose of reading this article is to do a simulation in our brains so that we would be ready to tackle such a situation and it's more of a simulated drill and we take the best action possible for ourselves and the survival of our fellow passengers.
First things first: Know your tools
Knowing what you're carrying is the first and foremost thing one can do to make the best use of them when the situation calls for. The diagrams below indicate the parts of the hammer and the fire extinguisher you carry with you.
Size of tools we recommend you to carry
Final words
Lastly, the highest emphasis that needs to be placed, is on being alert. Be alert and follow some guidelines and principles that appeal to you most in the situation. There are 7,365,321 more scenarios that can happen, but we discussed 3 of them in depth. There can be a hijack situation, burglary, the unknown engulfs us in shock and awe and we can tackle any situation minimally by staying alert and being prepared in the basic way. Keep thinking about what you would do. Simulating the circumstance in your head would greatly help during a real time hazardous situation.
Carry out drills at your home with such situations so that you develop muscle memory and you prepare yourself to react spontaneously with such drills. Good luck. Stay safe.
Rohit Audipudi
Here's where you can order the hammer and the fire extinguisher:
Hammer:
Fire Extinguisher:
Travel Pouch:
(Note: This article is only for educational purposes and in noway asserts anybody to do exactly or anyway remotely similar to the actions in this article and Debrief Zone or any of it's authors is not responsible for any liability whatsoever)
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