This morning.
Smithfield, Dublin 7
Seven people have been injured after a collision between a tour bus and a Luas in Dublin city.
Dublin fire service described four of them as “walking wounded” and said the other three were treated as a precaution
The Luas involved was travelling in the direction of Tallaght.
Seven hurt as Luas and tourist bus crash in Dublin (RTÉ)
Top pic: Thanks Liam Knuj
Pics 2 and 3 via Bert Macklin and Gerry Curran
Update:
Bus being towed after crash in #Smithfield, #DublinCity pic.twitter.com/17mXHwwoLU
— Shane Raymond (@ShaneARaymond) October 28, 2016
That’ll learn you.
Pics: Rollingnews
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There is never a good excuse for having crashed into a tram.
Numpties! Hope everyone is ok.
Ah lads, how’d you even manage that?!
If only hey had traffic lights to stop the traffic while the tram passes………, oh.
I wonder if it woke up the punters travelling from the 4 Courts to Tallaght?
Clown.
Sorry for waking you.
I’ve always thought the colour of the Luas trams is quite dull and makes them difficult to see, especially on overcast winter days like today. Is there an argument for painting the trams a brighter colour? Or perhaps even some kind of hi vis retro-reflective paint?
Their colour is irrelevant tbh, if the lights are obeyed you won’t come into contact with them
You’re putting all the responsibility on the bus/car/truck driver in that case. Surely the Luas driver shouldn’t be allowed to just breeze through a junction without looking pausing and looking both ways first?
Those are the rules for trams. Obviously the driver can’t be reckless about it, but they are not required to slow for every little alleyway. Trams have very long braking distances, so it would make the system unworkable.
6.1 General safety
The LRVs are driven under line of sight rules, ie at a speed at which they can be stopped within the distance that the driver can see. They are, except for their inability to steer around obstacles, no different in this respect to normal road vehicles. LRVs can travel at speeds of up to 70kph; however it should be noted that their braking distances are generally two to three
times greater than those of other road vehicles.
The signals on the light railway are those provided at road junctions in addition to the normal traffic light signals where the tracks pass through a public road junction.
https://www.luas.ie/assets/files/RPA%20Marketing%20Campaign/Luas%20code%20of%20engineering%20practice.pdf
No, the luas drivers are subject to their own set of lights, didn’t mean to make it sound like that
Forgive me, I’m being disingenuous. I’m a cycling advocate & just wanted to highlight the contrast between the response to this collision and the usual response to RTCs between motor vehicles and cyclists, where there is often an element of victim-blaming, such as “The cyclist should have been wearing a hi-vis” or “They were in the driver’s blind spot”.
This collision also raises the argument of purpose-built infrastructure. In this case the Luas has its own infrastructure, separate to road vehicles, so there is no genuine excuse for this RTC to happen (barring a signal failure or brake failure). Despite this segregation there are still regular collisions at the crossover points, mainly on the red line parallel to the north quays.
We generally accept, as a society, that we should keep the trams and road vehicles separate, mostly because we don’t trust the drivers of road vehicles to safely interact with the trams. Yet, we’re happy to dump cyclists and road vehicles in together and expect that some painted lines will keep things safe?
I know I’ve gone off on a complete and utter tangent here, but if the planners treated the Luas network the same way they treat the cycling network there would be carnage on the streets on a daily basis.
I’m too scared to cycle in the city to be honest! But I do often wonder what can be done in cities with small streets and lots of traffic like Dublin to make things safer. Amsterdam and Berlin are the dream but I think the streets are a lot wider there (I could be wrong).
Have there ever been any submissions made by cycling groups on how to better incorporate cyclists? I’d be interested to see them if so
Shouldn’t there be two of you riding a tangent?
Yes, HarryMolloy you are wrong: Amsterdam has narrow streets and concentric rings of canals. It would be Gridlock Central if it had a lot of cars. It works beautifully as a cycling city; and so could Dublin.
(And yes, by the way, the Luas should have been wearing hi-viz and a helmet, and does it pay road tax anyway, what’s it doing on my roads that I pays tax for?)
I agree with you. They originally didn’t have the yellow stripe but motorists gave out that the all grey body was hard to distinguish from the urban background.
The inability of trams to swerve to avoid collisions is a real design flaw.
LOL That is a joke right?
They run on tracks, just like trains.
Are you actually serious?
A tram cannot swerve because it must stay connected to the tracks at all times?
not with the newer ones, they can drive off track but keep on track as standard procedure
The new new ones can jump tracks, preventing such collisions from occurring. And they can fly.
And swim. That whole Rosie bridge thing was just part of keeping the nautical nature of the Luas under wraps.
Can’t wait for the Aqualuas to open taking passengers from Heuston station to IFSC in less than a minute, UNDER the Liffey!
Yes, SOQ. Yes it was a joke.
Ok tnx. That ‘Loon’ bit is slimming btw.
The best image is this: http://cdn-03.independent.ie/incoming/article35169772.ece/07f60/AUTOCROP/w620/thumbnail_image1.jpg
Definitely the bus driver’s fault, was he looking at his phone while driving or something?! Smacked the front of the Luas and then scraped all down the side as the Luas stopped.
Could be that the bus was stationary and a little too far out into the junction with the oncoming luas clipping it and getting scraped as it stopped. Either way, seems like the bus driver was in the wrong.
Funny, a colleague was telling me they heard Hammond Lane had been closed off by the guards earlier this morning for an unrelated incident.
Mickeys taking pics.
Never mind a doctor, is there a solicitor in the house? All sorts of whip lash claims from people who were never there now. Let’s hope the internal CCTV was working.
The line has re-opened now.
I don’t do jokes any more. (Trying to fit in)
Those were jokes?
well now
SMELLS LIKE COMPO TO ME!
The tang is more redolent of Foggy or Cleggy to my trained ‘strils, but it’s still within the general grouping of Senescent Yorkshireman.
This Christmas, give your man ‘Truly of the Yard’
(Disclaimer: I’m a cyclist) but have noticed that these tour buses are not driven safely in general. These yellow ones in particular, probably more noticeable due to colour. At the approach to Christchurch Junction traffic lights coming from Lord Edward Street they give zero regard for cyclists having to cross to middle of the road when wanting to go straight. Often thought they are an accident waiting to happen. I deduce I am therefore a physic.
Are you the cantankerous bully boy youtuber, cycledub?
Late to the party to say exactly this – the gold or yellow tour buses are generally driven in what I’d consider is a fairly reckless manner all around the gaff. Happens too often to be a one-off.