What's new
By:
Filters

ANOTHER bus crash (1 Viewer)

StarLink
High Speed Internet
Available AnyWhere On Earth
Now $349

yoda

yoda

Nitro Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2006
Messages
4,131
Age
63
Location
Some Tour Bus or Plane Somewhere
Tracy Lawrence Credits God For Surviving Bus Accident

Pollstar: Tuesday March 24, 2009 at 12:56 PM

Country artist Tracy Lawrence, along with a couple of members of his band, his road manager and bus driver, escaped serious injury Sunday, when his tour bus blew a tire in North Platte, Neb.

Lawrence and his crew were in the midst of a 36-hour trip with road manager Chuck Pursel spelling the driver at the wheel when the blowout occurred. The bus traveled down an embankment, over the median, tipped onto two wheels, and bounced into oncoming traffic.

According to accounts, Pursel had two choices – either collide with oncoming vehicles or tip the bus. The road manager opted for tipping the bus, but ended up regaining control by turning the wheel hard to the right, causing the bus to safely come to a complete stop in the center of the median.

Surprisingly, the damage to the bus was light. Other than the blown tire, which was replaced on the spot, the front of the bus and the vehicle’s undercarriage suffered only minor damage. All involved arrived home safely the following day.

But Lawrence isn’t blaming raw luck on Sunday’s incident not turning into a full-fledged freeway catastrophe. Instead, the country star credits the big guy upstairs:

“By divine intervention, we were at the right place at the right time for a serious incident like this to happen and have everyone walk away unscathed.”
 
Speaking of busses...

We had a city bus driver here that was caught drunk behind the wheel with a load full of people.

He blew a .24!!!!!
 
Registered member said:
Good thinking by the Road Manager behind the wheel, but the big question in the touring industry is- WHY was he driving in the first place?? :confused: :confused: :confused:
Click to expand...
You'd definitely have to have more than one driver if you're on a 36 hour roll. Perhaps he was in the seat as relief?
 
Registered member said:
You'd definitely have to have more than one driver if you're on a 36 hour roll. Perhaps he was in the seat as relief?
Click to expand...

Yup, you do Tom... And I've paid coach companies some pretty big bucks over the years to make sure they send me an additional driver for just that purpose when a booking agent has forgotten his geography and books Detroit on Thursday and Denver on Saturday... Industry practice is to find a driver that is IN the city you start in, or one that needs to GET to the city you're rolling to... that is qualified behind the wheel of the "submarine"... so you only have to buy a one-way plane ticket.
 
Registered member said:
Yup, you do Tom... And I've paid coach companies some pretty big bucks over the years to make sure they send me an additional driver for just that purpose when a booking agent has forgotten his geography and books Detroit on Thursday and Denver on Saturday... Industry practice is to find a driver that is IN the city you start in, or one that needs to GET to the city you're rolling to... that is qualified behind the wheel of the "submarine"... so you only have to buy a one-way plane ticket.
Click to expand...
I did the FOH mix for John Anderson about a zillion (OK, maybe 20) years ago at a big ol' honkytonk joint here in OK... his piano player not only doubled as the road manager but drove the bus as well. It was short hop though... I think they had come from north Tejas the day before.

Whatever the case with the Lawrence thing, it's good that there were no serious injuries and busses can damn sure be fixed. It'll be interesting to hear what the circumstance actually was. Dangerous gig, that roadwork.
 
Registered member said:
I did the FOH mix for John Anderson about a zillion (OK, maybe 20) years ago at a big ol' honkytonk joint here in OK... his piano player not only doubled as the road manager but drove the bus as well. It was short hop though... I think they had come from north Tejas the day before.

Whatever the case with the Lawrence thing, it's good that there were no serious injuries and busses can damn sure be fixed. It'll be interesting to hear what the circumstance actually was. Dangerous gig, that roadwork.
Click to expand...

I know that too well Tom... Back in the early 80's, I was the only lighting tech, lighting operator and road manager for a band that did 300 days of shows one year. AND the FOH guy, the backline guy and I all took shifts driving the 24' Ryder to every gig, hauling full lights, sound and bandgear...

3 grown men in a Ryder sucks....
 
Gee wiz, Martin..what in the world is going on with this bus thing?

I realize when you consider the number of buses used, equated with the miles traveled, and then accidents, it's minuscule. But I just cringe reading about this stuff. Then ya throw in a heart attack! Not cool.
 
Registered member said:
Gee wiz, Martin..what in the world is going on with this bus thing?

I realize when you consider the number of buses used, equated with the miles traveled, and then accidents, it's minuscule. But I just cringe reading about this stuff.
Click to expand...

You're on target, David- the number is miniscule. Doing the simple math, an average tour rolls minimum 2 busses (1 band/crew, 1 artist/management), multiplied by hundreds of tours on the road in the US at any given time... The odds are something is going to happen. Toss in life situations (supposedly the driver had a heart attack behind the wheel), and the odds of an incident happening increase. As a guy that lives in a bunk on one, I feel your cringe...

An example of how many of these things roll out at any given time- last summer I needed 3 busses in Europe, and we were late on reserving. My research discovered that during the months of June-August, more than 4000 tour busses were on the road throughout EUROPE. Even more were on the road in the US. The decent coaches are reserved a year in advance, whether the artist has a tour scheduled or not- easier to give one back than to try and get one....

I understand that to make this that much more tragic, the coach running behind "Uncle Bill" was being driven by his long-time best friend, who helplessly watched the entire accident unfold in front of him....:(
 
Last edited:
I worked for the second largest bus co. in America for ten years, we had over five hundred busses rolling every weekend somewhere in America, in ten years we only had a handful of crashes, FYI, always sit in the rear of the bus, we never lost anyone from the third seat back. Seriously though, I think with the amount of highway miles busses make each year they are very safe. As a driver you can only go 8hrs or 500miles before you have 8hr off the road, also you must have a class B CDL with a P endorsement. Here in Tyler we did a-lot of ski trips to Colorado, We would send the relife drivers to Amirallo the day before, they would stop for fuel and swap drivers there. But if it is a "private coach" then the DOT rules don't apply, anyone can drive it.
 
Registered member said:
I worked for the second largest bus co. in America for ten years, we had over five hundred busses rolling every weekend somewhere in America, in ten years we only had a handful of crashes, FYI, always sit in the rear of the bus, we never lost anyone from the third seat back. Seriously though, I think with the amount of highway miles busses make each year they are very safe. As a driver you can only go 8hrs or 500miles before you have 8hr off the road, also you must have a class B CDL with a P endorsement. Here in Tyler we did a-lot of ski trips to Colorado, We would send the relife drivers to Amirallo the day before, they would stop for fuel and swap drivers there. But if it is a "private coach" then the DOT rules don't apply, anyone can drive it.
Click to expand...

Tour coaches float on the "private coach" rule in the US, which puts our drivers behing the wheel for as long as they feel safe. MOST of the time that is no problem- back in the 80's, I would have to say there were quite a few moments of "wut woo Scooby"... The only rollover I was ever in was due to a wet road, and not a bad driver.

Take into account Ken that our tour busses usually start their roll at 2AM, after load out, and they are looking to get to Point B sometime before 8 AM load in... Mostly pro drivers out on the road at that time of the evening, with only a few rookies and numbskulls to contend with. Our biggest issues have been on busses with artist wraps on them and morons thinking that the Artist is on that coach. Been t-boned a coulpe of times by folks trying to make their love of the band known at 75 miles per hour...:rolleyes:




By the way- Top Driver Rear, FYI
 
Every time I read this it makes me think of Cliff Burton. RIP Cliff, now a member of the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame!
 
We did a-lot of work on private "tour coaches", all of our shops have seen many of them, as Martin knows most Artist's don't ride in the bus too often, a few still do, like Willie Nelson, His driver would bring his coach in for service and one of our old mechanics who knew Him would go get Willies old Martin Guitar out of the back and sit down and play after we'd close up shop, one time ole' Willie showed up with his driver and Him and Doug (our mechanic) sat down and jammed together, that was way cool.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Ways To Support Nitromater

Similar threads

Smiley
Jay Turner relives terrifying crash at Mardi Gras Nitro Jam
Replies
0
Views
3K
Smiley
Smiley
rpasley
Why (I think) T.Ped survived but Scott Kalitta did not...
Replies
13
Views
22K
.
.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top