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A fire suddenly broke out on a bus traveling on the Tomei expressway in Shizuoka Prefecture early Monday morning, police said. All 77 passengers and the driver escaped unharmed, police said, but the bus was gutted.
According to police, the fire broke out in the engine at the rear of the bus around 4:15 a.m. The driver quickly pulled over at a nearby Makinohara service area. The bus was on its way from Osaka to Tokyo.
© Japan Today
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timorborder
Engine room? Must have been a really big bus!
TokyoGas
Wow, that is one heck of a fire. Glad that everyone got out.
desmosedici
I'm disappointed that JT doesn't mention that it concerns a foreign made bus. NHK did. And no less the second foreign made bus that went up in flames.
Samuraiiki
Was he monitoring the engine temperature gage?
gyouza
The also mentioned that 50% of these buses in Japan have caught fire. So 2 out of 4! Sadly, they didn't mention how many overseas have caught fire. A quick google returns a few more fire related stories, I guess if I googled in German (it's home country) that I'd get more. That is a little disturbing (and would like to compare to other bus models for reference), but hopefully there isn't a cover up going on - peoples lives are at stake. The MOST surpring thing is that it took 10 minutes to get everyone out of the bus. Just 77 people.
WilliB
Actually, just a few days ago the same thing happened in Austria: http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,611987,00.html
and a few months ago in Germany, this time with 20 deaths: http://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/busbrand-20-tote-nach-kaffeefahrt_vid_7878.html
So yes, there is a problem with these contraptions. This sort of thing should not happen so often.
KnowBetter
Who makes these highway BBQs in Germany? Setra? Neoplan? Mann?
You have to wonder if these buses have a high BBQ per/km travelled ratio, when will they get pulled from the roads. I could understand in some 3rd world country were these things get swept under the rug but Japan?! Oh... nevermind! What was I even thinking...