My Pathetic Universe

First of all, this is only my own assessment and I’m not claiming that everything here is reliable. Shits do happen regardless of where you are. I’ve traveled a thousand miles in my life and still traveling on a bus every week and every once in a while God seems do something for His amusement (religious people can stop reading from here).

Just last night, while traveling to Manila, I saw a wreckage of two buses. According to our bus conductor, eight people were killed in that mishap. Read news here.

With nothing to do but to think about what happened, I came up with one question: where is the safest and best seat on a bus.

Fatalities vary according to types of accident. Take note that bus is the medium vehicle in this brief assessment. Let’s focus at the types of collisions.


Head On Collision
In case of bus, head on collision is fairly rare. But when do happen, the passengers in front will most likely to end up lying on the ground, lifeless with shattered windshield stuck on their faces.

Side Collision
This is the most common and the most deadly type of collision. When traveling at high speed and the driver have no time to break, his tendency is to turn either left or right treating either side of the bus like a shield. The other vehicle will then rip the side of the bus and leaving fatalities at the window side and possible casualties at the middle aisle seats.

This is also why the driver’s seat is one of the safest seats. Ever wonder why the drivers still managed to escape even in a deadliest road mishap?

The driver has all the control over the situation even at its thinnest chance and don’t blame them if they do protect themselves first, it’s an animal instinct for survival.


Rear-End Collision
Buses are traveling at around 80-120 kph and you have to beat that speed just to bump its rear. Usually, this happens when the vehicle in front make a sudden deceleration and the vehicle behind have no time to brake. This is the rarest type of collision and has the fewest casualties.

This is also why the rear seats are one of the safest places inside the bus.

Other types of accidents include falling off the bridges and cliffs, mechanical failure which can cause the bus to roll over and other accidents that don’t involve another vehicle/s. The casualties in these types are difficult to assume for it may vary in nature like the height of the cliff, depth of the river, etc. Also, it doesn’t matter which seat you’re on.