Originally Posted By RoadTrip I know there are thousands of safe limo rides every day, but I'm almost surprised this hasn't happened before. My one experience in a stretch limo was at my daughter's wedding in Orlando. She had a stretch limo take the bridal party from the ceremony at Leu Gardens to the Reception/Dinner at the Polynesian. I'm claustrophobic to start with, and the whole way to the Poly I was wondering how we all would get out of there if was an accident or something. Ten people in the thing and only the one small door at the back. Of course you can't stand up in a limo so you get in and out by scooting down the long sofa seats on each side of the limo. I never even thought about the possibility of a fire. Now I'll NEVER get in one again!!
Originally Posted By LuvsDsnyTrips Very sad story! My own daughter has rented quite a few of these in high school with other girls and I never thought twice about them before
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan This is a terrible incident. I've only ridden in a limo a couple of times. They were awkward to get in and out of, but until this accident, I hadn't ever thought about what would happen in an accident, how one would get out. Have they determined the cause of the fire yet?
Originally Posted By WilliamK99 Have they determined the cause of the fire yet?<< Considering it started in the back of the limo, there is a high probability that it is electrical...
Originally Posted By barboy This story is getting so much attention over here in Southeast Asia since the bride to be was Pinay(Filipina). reports said that survivors climbed through the window that separates driver from passengers???? The limos I have seen had 2 doors in the passenger(even 3 if the limo was big enough) area and 1 or 2 roof openings so one could stand up and stick their torso out of the limo while riding.....Josh(Tom Hanks) style in "Big"......or am I thinking of Dudley Moore in "Arthur"?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan This was a late 90's limo, so some of the emergency features weren't there. Plus some drivers engage the child locks so partying passengers don't open the doors and fall out.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip The stretch limo I was in had just one door (other than the two doors by the driver). It had a roof opening but it was in the rear of the limo... same general location as the door. If the door was inaccessible due to fire the roof opening would have been also.
Originally Posted By barboy ///This was a late 90's limo, so some of the emergency features weren't there/// but what emergency features do you mean? If you mean roof openings then those have been found in limos certainly since the 80's(and perhaps much earlier than that).....that "Big" movie was late 80's. I've only ridden in a limo 3 times('88--prom, '94---wedding and 2,000---wedding) and all had roof openings and 2 to 3 passenger doors/exits. Now I know that there are different sizes, shapes and features to these things so maybe this wedding group was in a very small and super basic one.....but then again they had, I think, 9 in there so it couldn't have been TOO small. Your theory of perhaps the doors were child locked makes much sense and would certainly factor in during panic and emergency..... Imagine if the driver child-locked the doors and after pulling over jumped out and failed to activate the passenger doors-------not saying he did this, just a catastrophic failure if he did. such a terrible story.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip A standard limo has an adequate number of doors for the passengers carried. That is perhaps the type of limo you rode in. All you need to do is look at an interior photo of a stretch limo to see the problem... long, long seating area, only door is at the back (which in this case is where the fire was). <a href="http://stretchlimochicago.com/fleet/images/MercuryGrandMarquisSuperStretchLimousine-InsidePhoto.jpg" target="_blank">http://stretchlimochicago.com/...hoto.jpg</a>
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>but what emergency features do you mean? If you mean roof openings<< "Moonroof" type openings are usually opened electrically. I am not clear if this particular limo even had that feature -- from photos and a Sacramento Bee graphic it didn't indicate one existed. I am sure that after this incident, more emphasis will be placed on safety and on making more emergency exits standard features. But then you have the problem that a lot of times, limos are rented by people who are using a lot of alcohol and so these emergency doors or windows can't be too easy to open up while the vehicle is moving.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>I am sure that after this incident, more emphasis will be placed on safety and on making more emergency exits standard features.<< Because anytime there's deaths in this country, we demand answers, we want to do whatever we can to reduce future deaths. Unless it's a gun.
