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Best place to throw this one I think:

From CFAX 1070.com

TRANSIT BUS INVOLVED IN MALAHAT CRASH

Apr 1, 2010

VICTORIA TRANSIT CONFIRMS IT WAS ONE OF THEIR BUSES INVOLVED IN A CRASH ON THE MALAHAT, NEAR THE SOUTH SHAWINGAN LAKE TURN OFF AROUND 7:30 THURSDAY MORNING.

WITNESSES SAY THE BUS WENT OFF THE ROAD AFTER A COLLISION WITH A TRUCK

A TRANSIT SPOKESPERSON SAYS THEY SENT A REPLACEMENT BUS TO THE CRASH SITE IN CASE IT WAS NEEDED TO TAKE PASSENGERS THE REST OF THE WAY TO VICTORIA.

TRANSIT OFFICIALS WERE DISPATCHED TO ASSESS THE SITUATION.

And from the Times-Colonist:

Bus driver swerves to avoid beer truck collision on the Malahat

By Cindy E. Harnett, Times ColonistApril 1, 2010 9:27 AM A quick thinking bus driver averted possible disaster on the Malahat portion of the Trans-Canada Highway this morning when he veered his southbound vehicle into the bush rather than on-coming traffic after being sidelined by a beer truck.

“The driver did a fantastic job,” said passenger Gordon Jones, one of about 14 riders on the No. 99 Shawnigan Lake commuter bus headed to Victoria. He fears what might have happened had the bus swerved left instead of right into busy highway traffic.

“That would have been horrible — devastating — and a lot more people would be hurt I tell you,” Jones said.

About 5 passengers received non life-threatening minor injuries including head wounds, said B.C. Transit safety and training officer Leslie Sadler. She picked up the remaining passengers just before 9 a.m. Thursday to drive them the rest of the way to Victoria.

In addition to steering the truck right, the No. 99 bus driver also avoided a light standard, which if hit could have been “catastrophic”, Sadler said.

“The driver [who does not wish to be named] did an amazing job,” she said.

A Sleeman Breweries Ltd. truck headed east with the intention of turning north onto the highway at the south-end turn off going to Shawnigan Lake, “rolled through” a stop sign and hit the side of the bus by its back wheels, Jones said.

“I’m not sure if his brakes weren’t working properly but then he just nailed it,” Jones said. “Everyone was kind of in shock and disbelief.”

Although the hit wasn’t hard, according to Jones, he described the bus as a wreck after travelling a fair distance and crashing into the bush.

Jones said it all started as a “pretty normal work day” when he hopped on the bus at 7:10 a.m. but that it soon turned into a bad April Fool’s joke.

“I thought to myself, holy cow, I can’t believe we just got nailed by a truck,” Jones said. No joke.

Traffic has been reduced to a single lane for both directions.

More to come.

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/driver+swerve...l#ixzz0jrtFlNCE

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I don't see how Victoria Transit could have been involved, the only transit vehicles that pass that junction are Cowichan Valley buses on routes 66 and 99, from Duncan and Shawnigan Lake respectively. Typical media error there.

Still, I hope everybody's alright, sounded like a nasty collision from what I heard this morning on the radio.

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Wonder what could replace it temporarily? As I know there's only 7 suburban Novas running out there and 6 are needed, leaving on spare. If one breaks down, could we see a normal Cowichan Valley bus go out?

It should be 8. 9290-9297 were the suburbans delivered along with the 22 regular configuration LFS that made up the first half of the 2008 order. Unless you mean there are 7 buses running now that this one is sidelined for repairs?

My best guess is that if they're going to bring in another bus to replace the sidelined one, the likely candidate would just be a regular-configuration LFS from (most likely) Victoria, and a contingency unit would be activated (or in the current situation where buses are being retired, left running rather than pulled from service) to make up for it.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Wandered past the Victoria Transit Centre earlier today. I noticed 9215 (still in the old red and blue livery) sitting without plates, sitting in the corner of the yard nearest Douglas at Garbally. Further along the eastern wall of the compound was parked 18-094 (displaying Training on its destination sign), next to which was 8079, also lacking plates. Of course, 9292 was still sporting its tarpaulin, and hadn't moved from its spot in the community shuttle lanes.

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Wandered past the Victoria Transit Centre earlier today. I noticed 9215 (still in the old red and blue livery) sitting without plates, sitting in the corner of the yard nearest Douglas at Garbally. Further along the eastern wall of the compound was parked 18-094 (displaying Training on its destination sign), next to which was 8079, also lacking plates. Of course, 9292 was still sporting its tarpaulin, and hadn't moved from its spot in the community shuttle lanes.

9215 is probably being prepared for a transfer to Powell River. If 8079 is deplated, it's probably listed to be transferred as well, but I can't think of where. Best guess would be Nanaimo, since that's the only system that we know has been receiving used D40LFs from Victoria lately (8048 8034, 8077, 8111).

18-094 is waiting to be hauled away either back to a Prevost facility or directly to a scrap yard. BCT staff are forbidden from moving the bus as far as I know, it had a notice in it saying "to be moved by Prevost staff only" when that photo was taken.

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Spotted Classic #944 southbound on Goldstream Avenue at Jacklin Road this afternoon. Destination sign said training. I was driving and had no camera, so no pictures. I thought these were all gone by now. Unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to check if it had plates or a temp op permit.

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Spotted Classic #944 southbound on Goldstream Avenue at Jacklin Road this afternoon. Destination sign said training. I was driving and had no camera, so no pictures. I thought these were all gone by now. Unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to check if it had plates or a temp op permit.

At the end of April, there were still about 5 or 6 active ones, according to the head of training operations who was our driver/guide on the Victoria portion of the MBS convention. 944, though, is now the main training bus, fulfilling the duties that until recently were carried out by 8911. It seems usually to be parked towards the end of the west half of the active lanes at Langford garage (which has been home to the training department since last year).

Most of the retired units are still parked (somewhat haphazardly) around the periphery of Langford garage, deplated. As indicated in other threads, a handful have been moved out to small systems to cover for buses damaged in accidents, or to serve as contingency spares. Another handful are/were stored at Berk's (I am fairly certain that all of the ones that have so far been confirmed out in other systems were spotted at Berk's at one point or another).

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Most of the retired units are still parked (somewhat haphazardly) around the periphery of Langford garage, deplated. As indicated in other threads, a handful have been moved out to small systems to cover for buses damaged in accidents, or to serve as contingency spares. Another handful are/were stored at Berk's (I am fairly certain that all of the ones that have so far been confirmed out in other systems were spotted at Berk's at one point or another).

There are still a bunch at Berks. Not many though.

Chris Cassidy

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  • 1 month later...

Now... LTC is completely void of MCI Classics - that is except for '944', which is the training vehicle nowadays. If you wish to look, go ahead... but I must warn you - there is a very nasty colony of huge red ants that live on the hill between Henry Eng Place and Dunford Avenue, so don't stand in one area for too long!

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