Talk:List of road accidents/archive

MX

From the MX, Tuesday April 26, 2005, p.13

Quote: ‹ Contract › A BUS and a freight train collided north of South Africa's capital, killing at least nine people and injuring 60 others, police said.

Police said helicopters were used to fly the most seriously injured to hospitals.

He said the cause of the collision near Johannesburg was still being investigated, but it appears the bus driver did not check to see if there was a train coming before trying to cross the tracks.

5 or more

It seems to me that about a third of the entries in this section, primarily the most recent ones, relate incidents that most likely are not worth note here. Although these types of incidents are tragic, a fair number of such incidents occurs in any given major city per year. As a rule, let's say that if an incident was significant enough that it could arguably merit an article in it's own right (not to say one needs to exist or be written), it is of enough historical significance for this list. Otherwise, it may be a tragedy but it probably doesn't belong here. Shaggorama 09:10, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I would say that unless it is the top one or two crashes in that country's histrory, or there was some other cause of notability (e.g. famous person involved) then they should not be here. Wikipedia is not a cellotaph. - Just zis  Guy, you know? ^[T]/_[C] AfD? 09:35, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

These ones seem pretty unremarkable:

• Gerogery, New South Wales (January 27, 2001), 5 killed in car hit by a train.
• Johannesburg, South Africa (April 2005), 9 killed.
• Waikato, New Zealand (May 18, 2005), 9 killed in mini-bus - logging truck collision. Second worst road accident in New Zealand history. Eight died at the scene and a ninth died on May 24, 2005.
• County Meath bus crash (May 23, 2005), 5 Irish teenage school girls killed when bus tipped over. The bus did not have fitted seatbelts (http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0523/rta01.html).
• Fox River Grove level crossing accident, Illinois, United States (October 25, 1995), 7 killed when a school bus caught between a railroad crossing and a red traffic light is hit by a commuter train moving at 50 mph.
• Arboga, Sweden, January 26, 2006. A bus gets outside the road for unknown reason. It rolls down a steep slope and the roof is pressed down to the seats. Nine died and most of the other passengers were injured, of them about 10 seriously.

The first, second and fifth of those DO have articles about them, and the NZ one claims to be the country's second-worst, so those four probably qualify to stay under the suggested criteria. --Scott Davis ^Talk 05:11, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

No problem if they are genuinely notable, they should be linked to the articles obviously. I'm just trying to avoid creep. - Just zis  Guy, you know? ^[T]/_[C] 10:17, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

The Meath crash caused a serious furore in Ireland re safety on school buses (the rules said 3 pupils to 2 seats, with no seatbelts, was legal), also all the victims were so young, so I think it should be included. EamonnPKeane 16:50, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Buses seem to have gotten very dangerous this autumn. In October 2006 alone 388 people were killed in 16 bus accidents, while in all of 2003 189 people were in killed in 6 accidents (not counting murders) and 258 were killed in all of 2004 in five bus accidents. - BIL 00:46, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Reorganise

I propose that this list should be reorganised more along the lines of the List of rail accidents. All small incidents should be removed, either they are not news worthy enough for Wikipedia or the are already covered by List of famous people who died in road accidents. Then it should be arranged by date, withonly those incidents in which more than 20 people died, or with less but which have already merited an article of their own, or which have a very special significance (can't think of an example). What do people think? I'll do it my self in a couple of days if no one seriously objects. --Jackyd101 03:23, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

OK, I reorganised it by date. I felt that researching a list of road accidents by death toll was morbid and unencyclopaedic, whilst by date they have a linear progression and are easy to find. For those who do wish to see the worst road accidents ever, I've set up space at the end for a "top ten" position if people want to use it. I saw lots of things on the list which I didn't think fitted it. There are dozens of car accidents in which multiple people die every day, for this list they need to be exceptional for some reason, or at least have a page of their own elsewhere. I removed the famous poeple from the list because they have their own list, which I linked to. The things I removed I put below. If someone can explain in the entry why they are exceptional, then by all means put them back. I also reinstated those list above which had articles of their own. Hope the new list is more informative, I based it on List of rail accidents, which has been revamped and is much more useful. --Jackyd101 19:07, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

One additional note, here are the items I removed because I didn't think they fitted:

• Stratford, Connecticut (January 1983): A tractor-trailer hit a line of cars waiting to pay a toll on the Connecticut Turnpike at that location. Seven were killed and the accident added greately to the pressure to remove the tolls from that highway, which were removed in October 1985.
• Mildura, Victoria, Australia (February 18, 2006): car drives into group of 30 teenagers late on a Saturday night. (5 killed at the scene, one more died in hospital).
• Eight killed on the Mohaka Bridge, Napier-Taupo Highway, New Zealand, 1995 when a house bus falls 50 meters. Third worst road accident in New Zealand history.
• Interstate 75 near Calhoun, Tennessee: pile-up during heavy fog. (12 killed) [1]
• I also removed these because there is no date. If someone finds more information, then they should go back in
• Castelo de Paiva, Portugal: moments after Ponte Hintze Ribeiro had fallen, three cars and a bus precipitated into the Douro river. (59 killed)
• Bahkkar bus crash, Pakistan: Bus rolls into ditch, taking 56 people with it.

--Jackyd101 19:10, 21 April 2006 (UTC) shouldnt bus bombings be listed under terrorism rather than as traffic accidentsBouse23 13:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Runaway cruft

Most sources show that the rates of fatality are declining in all developed countries, but there are more in this year's list than for some previous decades. This is supposed to be about historically signficant accidents. Guy 18:56, 21 October 2006 (UTC)