Riding Fung Wah? Wear Asbestos

A cheapo bus from Boston to New York burned up yesterday halfway to its destination.  What do you expect when you only pay $15 for a trip to New York?  For that money, they can barely buy diesel, let alone maintain the bus.  Note that the driver apparently doesn't speak English (or wasn't willing to) and did not communicate the need to evacuate the bus - passengers did.

Of course, the fare is what attracts the riders, including one student who said he will ride again, ''What are the odds of this happening again?" he said. ''Now I'm safe."

Twice in five months?  I'd say the odds are pretty good.  Bring a fire extinguisher.

Comments

[Josh Wardell]

People will still ride it though, as it's the only affordable way between two very close cities. In europe, you would have a 200mph train for $30.

[matt]

Of course, the fare is what attracts the riders, including one student who said he will ride again, ''What are the odds of this happening again?" he said. ''Now I'm safe."

That's a tempting and subtle error, to think that because something unlikely happens to you once, it becomes less likely that it will happen again in the future. Unfortunately, combusting gases will neither know nor care that you've been on a burning bus before.

[ed]

actually, wasn't the one that caught fire before the Travel Pak bus? you might say what's the difference, but it is a seperate company. you know, greyhound gets in accidents all the time, too. not that 2 fires in two seperate companies is ok, but they are far from the only offenders.

to be honest, i often prefer the slightly dangerous chinatown bus to the greyhounds. pulling into chinatown in nyc instead of port authority saves you almost an hour of sitting in traffic sometimes.

it's also a fallacy to think that just because something has happened once that it will happen again.

i don't know why i'm defending the chinatown bus so much. it just seems to take a lot of crap from people is all.

[carpundit]

I didn't say that because it happened once (twice), it will happen again. I said the "odds are pretty good." And I said it to refute the common fallacy expressed by the college student (it happened once to me, therefore it won't happen again to me).

I don't know why you're defending them so hard either. They take a lot of crap probably because they deserve a lot of crap.

[tekdemon]

While the "gambler's fallacy" line of logic ("since it's happened it's less likely to happen again") is untrue in games of chance, in this particular case it actually IS true that it's less likely to happen again, due to stepped up inspections and more than likely improved maintainence and checking by the company involved.

And while you may be quick to blame the company since it's a cheap $15 company, it's also incorrect to simply assume that they were actually at fault in the matter. After all, even parked Ford trucks have a tendency to blow up.

Something else that needs to be considered is whether this was another case of foul play, since buses have previously been torched (while parked) by rivals.

[Albert Zorn]

You get watcha pay for