Highway 400 Reopens After School Bus Melted By Fire
Posted May 16, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
What a day on GTA roads. First there were two tractor trailer spills on the 427 and the 401. Then a woman was hit as she left her vehicle on the latter highway.
And then, around 2:30pm, more trouble, this time farther north. All three southbound lanes of the 400 not far from Aurora Side Road were closed for several hours after a school bus burst into flames.
There’s not much left of the front of the big yellow rig, which fortunately did not have any children on it when the flames broke out. A driver onboard the bus smelled the smoke, pulled over to the shoulder, and got out safely, leaving nothing but a burned out hulk of wreckage on the side of the roadway.
It’s still not clear what caused the fire.
Traffic was at a standstill just as the rush hour and holiday exodus was heating up, leaving many caught in the unexpected back-up. Fire trucks and emergency crews were blocking the lanes, but things finally got back to normal just after 4pm.
But the back-up was long and annoying. The northbound lanes stayed open but so many drivers were slowing down to take a look that both sides of the highway wound up in near gridlock.
But bad as it was, it could have been worse. And in this case, timing in this case really was everything.
The bus driver says he was on his way to pick up some school kids when the fire started. It fortunately happened before and not after the event or the youngsters would have been onboard.
And while the bus company won’t reveal the school where the rig was headed, they indicate they sent an alternate to the campus so none of the kids would wind up stranded.
