Pearoast...
A few years ago I was walking back to my student house in Durham having spent a morning in lectures on the other side of the city. I stopped at a pelican crossing at some traffic lights, waiting for the lights to change.

As I waited, a bus approached towards me from the other side of the crossroads and turned right, up the hill away from the town. As it turned, something large dropped out of the bottom of the bus into the road, right into the middle of the pelican crossing I was standing at. The bus carried on up the road.

As the crossing lights turned green, I took a good luck at what appeared to be a pile of clothing in the middle of the road as I walked up to it. Only when I got closer, it became apparent that it wasn't a pile of clothes after all. There was visibly half a human leg sticking out of it. I quickly came to the gruesome realisation that it was a body, severely mangled and mutilated and missing at least one limb, as well as being partially decapitated. I was standing next to it. Blood was starting to pour in great quantities from it down the road, and about 100 yards down the road there was a shoe. The shoe still had a foot and half a calfbone in it.

As the full horror of the situation sank in, and other people got out of their cars to look, I went light-headed and vomited on the spot. I've usually got a strong stomach, but I reckon that sight could turn anybody. I had sleep problems for several weeks.

It wasn't so much the fact that I was standing next to this mutilated body that had traumatised me so much. It was the fact that somebody had had their life cut short in this way. The mangled pile of bones I was standing next to used to be somebody, who had doubtless had friends and family who loved them, and never in a million years could they see their life ending in this way.

It later turned out in the local press that the body was that of an elderly woman who had been pulled underneath the bus as it turned out of the bus station some half a mile away. The driver was oblivious to it, and didn't realise what had happened at all until the police pulled him over several miles away. In another twist of fate, the poor woman in question was actually the mother of the bus driver's manager.

I wish I was making it up... news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2795347.stm
( rubberduck should only be used after consulting with your GP, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 10:13, 11 replies)

My brother's friend was crushed by a bus as it turned left. He was trying to stop it and get on as it was the last bus home, but the driver ran straight over his head and didn't even realise he'd done it.
( Mr Gear the gay-maker, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 10:20, closed)

Ouch
"In another twist of fate, the poor woman in question was actually the mother of the bus driver's manager."

I'd imagine his next performance review was a bit awkward.
(Kyzia was here on, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 10:28, closed)

Can I just ask
how does someone get 'pulled under' a bus? I've been sitting here trying to work it out - I mean, it's not like there's a vacuum effect going on? Do they fall, and then somehow get caught by something underneath? Or are they standing minding their own business on a pavement when they're snatched by a mysterious vortex? I don't mean to trivialise the horror of your experience or anything, I just want to know...
(jennymnemonic, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 10:49, closed)

@jennymnemonic
They are hit, fall under the bus then get caught on something on the underside, like the exhaust or whatever. There are lots of protrusions under a vehicle capable of snagging loose clothing.

What a hellish way to die.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 11:07, closed)

'pulled under'
I'd imagine what happened is that she happened to be standing next to the rear left wheel of the bus as it turned left. The bus moved over her and some part of her body/clothing got snagged on the underside of the bus.
( rubberduck should only be used after consulting with your GP, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 11:07, closed)

kthnx
I see. That makes sense now. Yes, a terrible way to go.

One more question. Is it very bad that I felt less sad and horrified about the inicident when I found out was elderly? I mean, still awful, but to my mind less so that if it were a child/teenager/younger adult. I wonder if this is universal, and if so whether that's the way it's always been or part of the current social attitude that worships youth and puts little value on the old. Hmmm. Probably too much for so early in the QoTW, but then it's hardly sh*ts and giggles this week, is it?
(jennymnemonic, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 11:22, closed)

I vaguely remember this
A similar incident occured in Sunderland as well, I seem to remember.

Wouldn't have liked to be a witness though. *Shudder*.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Thu 28 Feb 2008, 13:49, closed)

@ Jen,
the rear wheels on a bus take a considerably tighter line around a corner than the front wheels, so if you get knocked over by the front, you get run over at the back.
( Mr Gear the gay-maker, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 16:41, closed)

Pulled under.
I've been trying to work this out myself. I guess when buses turn, the middle section of the bus moves sideways as the front wheels take the corner. This could knock down someone standing too close to the side of the bus, who are then run over by the back wheels.

Who's up for investing in a new invention; proximity sensors along the sides of the bus that, when detecting something close to the side of the bus on the inside of its turn, it applies the brakes sharply and stops the engine?
(Musuko, Thu 28 Feb 2008, 17:16, closed)

It's called Cut in
I drive buses, the rear will follow a significantly tighter line than the front. This is common with any vehicle which steers from only one axle, just the wheelbase determines how great it is (A Pug 205 hatch has a very small cut in, for example, a bus or limo, the rear axle will follow a much, much tighter line) Visibility on the left side is also a problem, in a right hand drive bus, especially if the mirror is not totally set correctly, or weather conditions inhibit viewing, and here at least, there's plenty of undercarriage points to get snagged on.

A few months ago, a girl lost her leg when she went under the rear wheel of a bus here. 'twas just before dawn, and immensly foggy.
(Grey_Ghost has yet to decide on a sig on, Fri 29 Feb 2008, 5:40, closed)