Before I go ahead, I’d like to make it perfectly clear that the above title is not an exaggeration in any way. The Honduran taxis are very, very bad, as I’ve shown to you before, but with them most of the deaths tend to be at the hands of gang violence. In the case of the “Buses Amarillos”, the buses themselves are doing the killing.
Backstory time: the first buses that were used for public transport in Honduras were, naturally, VW T1 transporters. Before them if you wanted to travel you had something called “Baronesas” which, as far as I can tell, were US commercial chassis with wooden frames and long boards affixed as makeshift benches. My great-grandmother would tell me how when she moved to the city from Comayagua in 1933 (a distance of roughly 56 miles), it took her two day’s travel to get here due to the terrible roads. I presume ride comfort was also not particularly good. The T1’s must’ve been a revelation for all those poor souls previously forced to bounce about while sitting on wooden planks.
However, the T1’s didn’t have size to their advantage so other Central American manufacturers got in the business of buses. The most successful of this was Rosmo. Rosmo was the creation of Italian immigrant Severino Rosmo Barrato, who emigrated from Italy to Guatemala and started producing wooden bodies for commercial chassis in 1935 and went on to become the biggest supplier of bodies for commercial bodies in Central America, making bodies for Mercedes-Benz, Isuzu and Hino Buses. Some of his legacy with steel bodies can still be seen rolling in the Tegucigalpa streets, such as this much newer Mercedes…
…And this Hino.
Even after the import of old school buses became widespread, Rosmo soldiered on, but moved upmarket and now does the bodies for buses intended for traveling across the continent. These are much more luxurious affairs though, and not really suited for intra-city use. Having said that, they still have a “Convencional” line so you can turn your international 4700 into a bus that can carry anything between 48 and 60 passengers.
To be honest with you, I have no idea who came with the bright idea of importing old American school buses, such as the favorite Blue Bird All-American, to use as public transport here. Was it an American with a couple dozen surplus school buses and an entrepreneurial spirit? Or was it something concocted over here by a similarly cunning Central American who would rather not fork up the cash for a new chassis and body? In any case, from the early ‘80s and all the way through the mid 90’s we saw a veritable flood of decommissioned school buses that still had some life in them to be used as public transport.
On paper at least it’s actually quite a sound thought they had. American school buses were at the very least similarly comfortable, not to mention almost certainly cheaper to buy and often had more room for passengers than a locally produced bus. This was good for more profits; it’s not like the Cummins and Detroit-Diesel units that powered them would give any more trouble than a similar vintage Hino Engine, in fact it may be more reliable and need less maintenance.
That’s where the problems start. You see, people in the Honduran public transport systems have never been very keen on maintenance, for which I mean to say, they never do maintenance. Completely bald tires, engines held on with string, buckets in place of seats and failing brakes are the order of the day. The image above is of a bus that actually lost its rear axle to the forces of entropy and neglect. For that reason they have earned the name “Ataudes Rodantes” or rolling coffins. Users pay about Lps.4 (about $0.18) for the privilege of playing Russian roulette in one.
Of course, the government decided to crack down on this, imposing mandatory inspections and sanctions. This proved to be about as effective as trying to put out an Australian Bushfire with a Turkey Baster. Just one example: legally speaking large buses must have smoke stacks so that the diesel smoke goes away from the people driving behind it. I actually make a point to notice when buses have those as it is so rare and I’ve gotten many many clouds of barely-working diesel engines that are running absurdly rich. I’m sure my lungs are very thankful for those.
Speaking of driving behind them, we also have a problem regarding bus stops. The idea is that buses would stop a predetermined locations where bays were built. You know, like in most every civilized city. But sadly this has escaped the grasp of the drivers and the passengers alike. The passengers, by not bothering to walk to the bus stations and instead making wherever they bundle into a group of three a bus station, and the drivers by feeding them and stopping wherever they please. It has been pointed out to me on some occasions that if there’s a two-lane road going somewhere I’ll hog the left lane. In a fit of Malicious Compliance, I’ll switch to the right lane where not a minute later there will be a bus blocking the lane. So I have to merge to the left lane where all the smart people can keep a constant speed, overtake the bus and move to the right where the game would begin all over again. It easily makes any given trip be twice as long.
Every government in office since 1995 or so has said it’ll get rid of them, but at most what they have done is introduce a new kind of “Executive” buses, which will have their day of reckoning at my hands in a later date. Suffice to say, it was in concept a repeat of the yellow buses and actually made it all get worse.
Even worse, some of these decaying yellow deathtraps aren’t limited to the city but roam outside to the countryside doing runs from one major city to another. We aren’t talking about interstates here but roads that are rather more similar to Route 66. An unmarked, unlit Route 66 with sheer cliffsides on one side and walls made of rock on the other. Countless accidents have happened because of overloading or brake failures, but mostly is a combination of those plus excess speed.
Such a shame really. I’m pretty sure with some proper maintenance they’d be unkillable and rather adept at doing the rounds they’re made to do. As it stands however, we’re merely adding potential human casualties to their eventual deaths.
(Most of the Photos in this Article are courtesy of KIMI CROMARTIE’s Photobucket, without which this article would’ve been considerably more boring)
That last pic’s just a wee bit too graphic…
Ahh it isn’t too bad, I’ve tried to pull a dead person out of a burning Freestar and seen some other crazy stuff in my time, but I do agree it is not a photo that I want to dwell on.
However, if it was a photo of a burning Freestar or there were more details visible then I would actually be disturbed.
School busses have bad associations in towns across the country for leaving the pavement at the hands of badly trained or poorly screened drivers. I have spent most of my life in the Northeast corridor, and lived in towns in both New York and Massachusetts that have sad memories of the identical kind of school bus accident, where one gets hit at an ungated train crossing. There have undoubtedly been improvements to the traditional riveted bus body, but they have a history of folding up or breaking apart jaggedly in a crash.
In the US, school buses are about the safest vehicle to ride in, statistically speaking. The death rate is 0.2 per 100 million miles; almost one tenth of the rate of automobiles. Over a span of 11 years, from 1994-2004, a total of 71 passengers on school buses died in crashes. Meanwhile, over 30k per year die in cars.
Yes, when one is involved in an accident, it makes the news. But statistically speaking, they can’t be beat.
And a transit or intercity coach wouldn’t have fared significantly any better in the accident shown in the last picture. There’s two issues here: maintenance and driving. The buses themselves are quite innocent.
Two big reasons it makes the news: (1) because it so seldom happens, and (2) because of the sheer number of injuries and/or fatalities, often involving children. We had a bus run into a concrete post divider for an overpass here a couple years ago and it was in the news for a week, even though the only injury was to (I think) the driver.
Very interesting. I wonder if the low fatalities per mile statistic has more to do with the ratio of passengers to vehicle or to the relative size and visibility of a school bus – or both.
I rode a bus from San Ignacio, Belize to Belize City. It was terrifying and beautiful; one of the most memorable rides of my life. I would not want to repeat it.
I think the driving makes a huge difference. Buses must stop at all railroad crossings, guarded or not. When a school bus stops a stop sign comes out and halts all traffic behind it and an arm swings out so people/ kids must go around it where they would be in the driver’s field of vision. Driver education plays a huge roll as well.
Our city bus system will fire a driver that is involved with an accident regardless of who is at fault.
Oh certainly, the buses themselves were quite solid and dependable. it’s not like you can really go wrong with mechanicals that are tried and have had most of their bugs weeded out.But neglect will make a number on anything.
Growing up in Central New York the most time I have seen a print source of news talk about a school bus crash is two days then a day or two here and there if you count letters to the editor. Sometimes there will be a follow up a few months later, but thankfully no fatalities in decades.
I’ve seen old American school buses used as mass transit in Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and Peru too. They usually look and sound pretty clapped out. A friend of mine who lives in Costa Rica calls them “chicken buses”.
I haven’t been on a school bus in years, but what I remember is that by the time the local school district retired them, they were already pretty tired. When I was a kid, in the South, surplus school buses seemed to turn up as church buses, deer-camp lodging or make-shift motorhomes, hay haulers (with a lot of cutting), or some other adaptive use. There seems to be less of that now.
I’d say you definitely don’t see as many serving as makeshift RV’s as in the past, but it still seems to be quite common for camp buses, church buses, and various agricultrual haulage platforms to be former school buses.
Also have seen buses become twister shelters and the top lopped off so fruit could be picked as it drives along.
One very common use for retired school buses is as fencing/parts storage in auto wrecking yards.
Here I thought that riding a GMC Fishbowl round trip from Sandy to Timberline Lodge last year was an antiqued and at times hair raising experience.
Well good to hear that the Blue Bird All American FE/RE is reliable since the 1998 or 1999 pair of Blue Bird TC/2000s my district had as I was growing up were rubbish from the get go. I take it these Ataudes Rodantes are the same as Chicken buses then. Shame the government cannot effectively enforce rules on these buses and is it correct to assume the passenger cars in Honduras are just as much rolling death traps?
I agree with you about the former U.S 66. I drove the bit from Kingman to Oatman, AZ and then to the connector at I-40 It sucked, but less so once you got onto the flat and away from the flash flood warning signs.
Over here in California, the school bus manufacturer of note was Gillig of Hayward, CA. They have a pretty solid reputation as a coach maker, but IIRC they got out of the school bus business, but still make commercial coaches.
Don’t forget Crown Coach of Los Angeles ! .
Sturdy well made rigs that are still out there daily .
-Nate
Those old Crown buses were something. I have never seen such stout bumpers on anything else. The bodywork was very heavy gauge metal, and they just never seemed to wear out. Quite handsome, too, in an old-school aero sort of way. Riding to elementary school or junior high, the Gilligs and Blue Birds seemed like trucks, but the Crowns seemed like tanks.
Yes! When California’s new diesel emissions regs came into play there was a panicked howl of protest from people trying to buy old Crown Supercoaches before they went to the crusher. (Junking them was monumentally stupid to begin with, because AFAIK DPFs can easily be retrofitted and the service life of a Supercoach is essentially infinite.) Far too many weren’t rescued, alas. They make a beautiful motorhome, as lush as an intercity motorcoach but easier to service (mostly standard 18-wheeler parts) and dripping with classic charm: a 1990 looks exactly like a 1960. They’re fun to pick apart because every one was built custom: some with two layers of weather insulation and some with none, etc.
The engines are a little short on power, of course, and being mid-engine underfloor affairs it’s not necessarily easy to find an alternative powerplant that will fit. As late as 1990 they were often still built with the all-sound no-fury Detroit 6-71, and before that a pancake Cummins, both with about 220 hp (a little more if equipped with a “smoke turbo”).
Gillig used to make a sort of uglier photocopy of the Supercoach, which makes an OK conversion shell too if you raise the roof, but long ago Gillig switched primarily to the boxy “modern” Phantom for both low-end city bus and high-end school bus duties.
There can be no clearer illustration of the difference between school and municipal budgets before and after Prop 13 kneecapped tax revenues in California than a Gillig Phantom vs a Crown Supercoach or GM New Look bus. Our city bus fleet in the 1980s-90s had GM New Look buses from the 1960s that still rode beautifully and didn’t rattle (but were deafening from outside: 6-71 and failed engine compartment latches, baby); AM General buses from the 1970s that rode beautifully and had quiet engines but windows that rattled like thunder and frames that cracked; and brand-new Gillig Phantoms with narrow hard plastic seats, a hard ride, scratched non-opening plastic windows, and engine compartments that leaked heat/noise/fumes inside. Within months, the Phantoms rattled as bad as the AM Generals; within a few years, they were toast and turned over for a new fleet of…Gillig Phantoms, because once again they were the lowest bidder.
Here on the east coast, specifically North Carolina and Virginia, Thomas Built seems to have the lion’s share of the school bus market. They’re headquartered in North Carolina so some of it might be the “home team advantage”. Blue Birds are also a not-infrequent sight.
For municipal buses, we seem to see quite a lot of Gillig out this way too (Richmond city buses are Gillig, for example), but there are several players in the game.
In the Mid West School Buses have to be retired at a certain date or mileage , that’s why they’re so plentiful and still in good shape .
Many Independent Chirches buy them up and use them to set up rural Churches , they come get the poor and Elderly folks , take them to Church .
When I lived in Guatemala in the mid 1970’s all the ‘ Roulteros ‘ ran old School buses , they’d fly off the mountains , drop down ravines , flip over for no discernible reason etc. daily .
I remember passing one in a ditch once , the right end if it’s I-Beam front axle had simply snapped off , wheel , king pin etc. all all . no one died _that_ time .
You have to ride in one to truly get the full effect , they always add a long roof rack and as the bus pulls into traffic , the ‘ Ayudantes ‘ (Helpers) are still standing up there juggling the suitcases , bags , boxes and live poultry down so it’ll clear the tunnels .
Then they climb down the back and in the back door as the rig is roaring along on it’s bald tires…
One time the Ayudante neglected to watch forward , the bus went into and out of a tunnel , then his bloody guts began running down the back of the bus’ windows……
Talk about an E-Ticket Ride ! .
I hope to never have to do that again .
-Nate
I don’t know how you do it Nate, but you can turn the most sad and horrible stories into the most enjoyable and amusing reads here.
Thank you Mr. Dutch .
I’ve had a ‘ memorable ‘ life so far , I am *very* lucky to still be alive .
I feel that pretty much everything can be educational…….
I apologize if my stories are boring crude or distasteful but they’re all true for whatever that’s worth .
You alls teach me SO MUCH here , I like to try to repay it in my own weird way .
BTW : I really enjoyed living in Guatemala , it’s not the same now as it was in 1975 , I remember General Luca’s Military Coup vividly along with my 1937 EL KnuckleHead Harley Davidson Moto , some real hair raising stories riding it there.
-Nate
Perhaps the reason why Blue Birds are so revered in Central America is that Blue Bird at one time had a factory in Guatemala. The Hino-powered All American most likely came from there as that plant built on locally available chassis (Hino, Mercedes, Nissan etc) rather than the Blue Bird chassis that the AA usually sat on.
Out of the plants listed on this old BB nameplate, only the original plant in Fort Valley, GA is still in operation….
Here some photos of a Blue Bird Hino at http://busexplorer.com/PHP/MidPage.php?id=1353
And a older Blue Bird Nissan located in Nigaragua
http://busexplorer.com/PHP/MidPage.php?id=630
School buses are tough, it’s appreciated by Michiganian considering how fragile the roads and bridges are. The parts of the bridges occasionally fall off around Dearborn and other Detroit surrounding areas, often complained by a friend of mine. And one day I heard the news about a piece of bridge fell on the engine bay and cab of a school bus, luckily no one was hurt.
I wouldn’t drive around there often, I think I will be happy in the countryside snow blowing all day long and seeing bears crossing the road.
http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/06/24/its-gone-beyond-repairs-state-rep-says-about-michigan-roads/
Are these affectionately called “chicken buses” in Honduras, as they are in Guatemala?
Nope, just “Buses”
K.
I saw a couple used school buses in Cuba, they didn’t bother to repaint them, and so they llooked very American. But were actually from Canada (by Corbeil).
Speaking of Honduras, I was in Santa Cruz, Bolivia last year. Best way to get around town is by bus. Saw many 20(?) passsenger older Toyota buses. I noted the buses were very utilitarian, diesel-powered with 4-speed manual transmission. Most were packed to double capacity with people standing in aisle. Bus would pick you up and drop you off wherever along the route you wanted (no designated bus stops). Fare was 2 Bolivianos (about 30 cents).
Taxis are another story; mostly older 1980s-1990s vintage Japanese cars, well-used, full of rattles and practically ready to fall apart. No doubt the roads are not kind to modern suspensions and bodies.
There’s a documentary about these former American school buses called La Camioneta (it’s in English). http://www.lacamionetafilm.com/
“Every day dozens of decommissioned school buses leave the United States on a southward migration that carries them to Guatemala, where they are repaired, repainted, and resurrected as the brightly-colored camionetas that bring the vast majority of Guatemalans to work each day.”
Your comments on the poor maintenance and crazy driving habits of public service vehicles remind me of my own experiences here in Barbados. Over here, though, we call them “ZR vans” owing to the license plates they carry, and they are mostly Toyota Hiaces, though in the early 90s some operators had Suzuki vans as well.
My best friends mom is from Honduras and when I drove my ’63 VW Bus to her house she told me about riding with her mom in one all over the city where she grew up.