Update: Bus loses wheel on Fauntleroy, nobody hurt

October 31, 2008 at 8:26 am | In Transportation, Triangle, West Seattle news, West Seattle traffic alerts | 7 Comments

(WSB photos added 8:50/9:13 am; #1 by Patrick Sand, #2 by Christopher Boffoli)
Thanks to Manuel for the tip that the 54X bus had broken down (headed for downtown). We’re at the scene – it’s at Edmunds, blocking a lane so traffic is diverting around it. According to Manuel, a wheel fell off; we’re working to verify exactly what went wrong. 8:32 AM UPDATE: Metro supervisor at the scene confirms a wheel did come off, but the bus had a veteran driver who got it safely to the side of the road. Nobody hurt; everybody transferred to another bus relatively quickly; the bus will be towed shortly, but till then, it’s still slower going heading northbound on Fauntleroy. 9:20 AM UPDATE: Keri, who was on the bus when it happened, e-mailed this:

The bus seemed to shudder and skid a bit, as if it was trying to stop on wet pavement and couldn’t. It came to a halt and felt tilted. One woman suddenly said “tire!” (I thought she said “fire!” yikes.) She then said, “our tire just rolled by us!”

As we were getting off the bus, the driver said we actually lost two. We were all extremely grateful that this didn’t happen while we were on the viaduct.

7 Comments

  1. Thought that the wheel on the bus was supposed to go round and round, not fall off!

    Comment by Scott — October 31, 08 8:46 am #

  2. Even though it’s going on a decade since Junior Member of the Team was a preschooler, I couldn’t get that nursery rhyme out of my head as soon as we heard about this … TR

    Comment by WSB — October 31, 08 8:51 am #

  3. I’m rolling with them until the wheels fall off. Oh snap! One of ‘em just did!

    Comment by Aidan Hadley — October 31, 08 8:54 am #

  4. “And the wheels on the bus go…….uh oh.”

    Comment by Rick — October 31, 08 9:13 am #

  5. Fauntlerut 1 – Metro 0

    Comment by cruiser — October 31, 08 11:03 am #

  6. Kudos to the driver for keeping the bus safely under control!

    .

    Mike

    Comment by miws — October 31, 08 1:14 pm #

  7. I was warming up my car this AM when the bus was sitting at the light on Edmonds waiting to go. When he started moving, the wheel on the left rear fell off and went rolling down Fauntleroy into the parking lot on the other side of the pawn shop. The driver did handle it well and the bus came safely to a stop.

    LOL to Scott. The wheel did go round and round, it just wasn’t on the bus anymore… Free as a bird… I was surprised at how far it went.

    Comment by J — October 31, 08 6:42 pm #

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