....I think I almost died.

Or, if not that, almost severly injured in a bus accident.

Buses, as I'm sure most of you know, are not exactly the most stable vehicles to be in. They have rather high centres of gravity; and, with a full load of people on the bus, the centre of gravity is about half a metre above the wheels, or about two metres off the ground. The newer buses that the city of Edmonton built are much lower to the ground and, therefore, are much more stable. I was not in one of those newer buses.

Anyway, as I was saying, it happened as the bus was comming down the 'on' ramp to the Whitemud Freeway. The on ramp curves a bit as it joins the Whitemud, and most buses comming down that ramp do tilt a little. This one tilted a lot. It wasn't the initial tilt that was scary though. As the bus came off the on ramp, it began to sway a noticeable amount from left to right. Unlike most buses, however, the swaying motion got LARGER as the bus continued on. About 200 metres from the on ramp, the swaying motion was tremendous. We also began to go across a bridge over the river valley, roughly 50 metres below. On the left swing, the bus's wheel actually scraped the wheel cage (acting as a sudden brake, for the time the wheel was in contact). Worst was the right swing that immediatly followed: the bus swayed towards the (incredibly small) bridge railing at a rather high speed. Once again, the bus's wheel smashed against the wheel cage, but this time the left wheel actually LIFTED OFF THE GROUND as well, if only a little.

Luckily, the bus didn't go over. After the bridge, the swaying gradually slowed down, to the relief of everyone on the bus. About a quarter of the people got off at the next stop. Can't say I blame them. When the bus reached my stop and I got off, I quickly took a look at the wheels and wheel cage. The wheels had no treads left on them and the wheel cage was quite visibly damaged.

What I still fail to understand, however, is how the bus's side-to-side motion increased as we went down the freeway. Could it be that some stupid kids were rocking side to side for fun? Could the bus's shocks be that messed up? Could it be that the driver wasn't paying attention at a critical time? I still don't know.

-Ka"Can't help but think of what would happen if we lifted off another few centimetres...."z!