quote Clinton Township man in bus hits head on overpass Mark Hicks/ The Detroit News What began as a fun night on the town ended in death Sunday after a 24-year-old Clinton Township man pushed through a hatch on a party bus and hit his head on an overpass, Michigan State Police said. The incident is being investigated as "an extremely tragic accident," Sgt. Sheila Shields said. "People don't realize how dangerous a moving vehicle is," she said. "People have to think." According to a preliminary investigation, Salvatore Talluto was among a group of about 25 people on the party bus returning from an outing in downtown Detroit. Scott Wanagat, Talluto's brother-in-law, said the group was having a bachelor party and hired the motor coach to make plans easier. Police said the bus was heading east on Interstate 94 near Van Dyke on Detroit's east side about 2 a.m. when Talluto left his seat and put his head through an emergency exit hatch. Soon after, he struck an overpass, Shields said. The bus was traveling about 55 mph at the time; the force of the impact knocked Talluto back into the bus, Shields said. It was unclear if Talluto had been drinking alcohol or if the bus driver would face charges. Police were called and the man was transported to St. John Hospital in Detroit. He was declared brain dead that evening, Wanagat said. Funeral services are pending, and Talluto's organs were donated to Gift of Life, said his sister, Anna Wanagat. The longtime construction worker and bar manager made the request during a family dinner several weeks ago, Scott Wanagat said: "He was always very giving to others." Relatives remember Talluto as a fun-loving spirit who loved to watch sports and hang out with friends. "He was a very happy, carefree kind of guy," his brother-in-law said.

http://www.detnews.com/arti...106210370/1408/local

The only person to blame is the victim... sorry to say, unless the bus driver told him he could do it.

This is the 2nd time in less than a year that something like this happened around here. I remember some drunk guy falling out of the back of a party bus on I-75 near 8-mile. He ended up getting run over twice and dying.

maybe these partyy busses should have a warnign sticker:

Caution: Drunk People do Stupid Things

quote Originally posted by Pyrthian: maybe these partyy busses should have a warnign sticker: Caution: Drunk People do Stupid Things

I'm not so sure there wasn't intent in this case....

quote Funeral services are pending, and Talluto's organs were donated to Gift of Life, said his sister, Anna Wanagat. The longtime construction worker and bar manager made the request during a family dinner several weeks ago, Scott Wanagat said: "He was always very giving to others."

Sounds almost like it was planned. Anyone know what the insurance payout was?

I've worked on buses. The company, and the driver, could face potential lawsuit charges.

A DOT law states that any bus equipped with an emergency exit - school bus, travel bus, tour bus, etc. - has to have a warning buzzer or some other instrumentation that shows to the driver that an emergency exit is opened, installed and operational so it sounds or flashes when any emergency escape is opened. There may not necessarily be a warning that states that to the public themselves (typically it's basic "emergency exit" markings), but the driver is at all times supposed to be aware of such a system and check it's operation on his/her pre-checks before operating the vehicle. All emergency exit warning signals are operated by tiny micro switches. Some of them are literal switches, while others are simple push-buttons like on car doors that depress when the exit is closed. When the circuit is broken (exit opened), either a buzzer goes off or the warning light comes on.

If the man managed to open an escape hatch, either a very loud buzzing should have been heard or a "dummy" light should have illuminated on the dash. If neither of these occurred, the driver did not complete the pre-checks of the bus correctly and so didn't report the fault.

This however is dependent on what "party bus" means. That could have been a simple van owned by a private company. In that case, I'm not sure exactly how that would be handled, as I'm not sure if they're covered by this ruling, but I do know all school and commercial buses are part of this DOT law.

[This message has been edited by Fiero84Freak (edited 06-21-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Fiero84Freak: I've worked on buses. The company, and the driver, could face potential lawsuit charges. .....

Not all exits are alarmed. The roof escape hatch is not alarmed and can be opened without a warning for the driver. These escape hatches serve 2 purposes. One is of course the emergency escape use when the vehicle comes to rest on it's side. There isn't an easy way to get out of that hatch while the vehicle is upright thus no alarm is needed. You cannot fall out of that hatch while the vehicle is moving unless you climb your way up to and out the hatch. The second purpose is ventilation. These are the same white vents that you see on the roof of school buses and public transit buses. These vents open three different ways for ventilation. There are 2 spring loaded latches on them....one at the front of the opening, one at the back. You can push up on either of these latches and the unit's cover will pop open in the front for a wind scoop effect catching air and pulling it into the cabin, the lid will pop open in the back and act like a vacuum sucking the air out of the cabin or both latches pushed up will hold the lid up with the entire opening clear for about 2 inches. To open the lid for any kind of escape requires that a locking handle be turned and that releases the lid from one of the latches and the other latch has a hinge to swing the lid away from the opening. The latch with the handle is always towards the rear of the lid so if you do somehow turn that disconnect handle the lid will stay in the closed position with the pressure from the wind holding it closed.....kid of like trying to open a car door while the car is moving. If this guy opened the hatch he would have needed help to get up and onto the roof to get clobbered by a bridge. Not exactly an accidental action. Our party buses were roughly 13ft high so with the guy sticking his head up through the roof a couple of feet is all he needed to get slapped by a bridge structure.
One of our buses also has a divider between the driver's compartment and the rear area. With that up there is no way to see what the people are doing inside the bus and the mirrors don't cover the roof.

I do know about the ventilation for the hatches. The warnings shouldn't activate with normal ventilation.

They should however activate when the entire hatch has been "popped", or completely opened. If these sorts of buses don't have a warning for the driver when an emergency hatch has been completely opened then there is a serious issue that needs to be rectified. I do agree that it takes significant work to actually get through the hatches when the unit is still sitting upright. When I worked on them I would have to throw myself between two seats and use upper strength to get through - and it still took time. I found it easier to just climb a ladder on a snub nose unit or climb on the hood on a standard hooded unit.

I'm amazed the driver didn't possibly have some sort of warning that someone had opened the hatch. It's utterly appalling that there are vehicles that transport significant amounts of people that wouldn't have direct warnings to the driver. Where I worked, if a unit came back without having proper warning signals working on the emergency hatches to the driver after their routes were complete, and the driver didn't immediately report it and have the unit serviced or switched for another unit, they would have potentially lost their job on the spot when the mechanic found out the next day.

The school buses I drive have the vent emergency hatches in the roof. If they're popped open, a buzzer will sound.