I won't pretend to have heard of them, but fuck that's tragic
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Viola Beach
Eye witness details coming out. It sounds like f*cking stupid as well, which just compounds the tragedy. -
Viola Beach
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12156399/Indie-band-Viola-Beach-killed-after-car-plunges-off-bridge-in-Sweden.html?fb_ref=Default
They opened for The Courteeners and were included in the BBC Introducing showcase: this was the band's first foreign tour, apparently. Tributes have been forthcoming from Billy Bragg, The Coral, The Cribs and Starsailor, so they'd clearly been gaining respect in the industry.
RIP.Comment
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Viola Beach
Horrible news. I don't know whether we discussed it at the time but it reminds me of the band Baroness whose coach crashed through a fence and down a 60ft viaduct. At the time, it was assumed that it had something to do with the driver's tiredness but I read recently that the brakes had failed. Knowing the road, it must have been horrible as it is a long steep road they were going down and one band member has said that he awoke and was with the coach driver as he was trying to stop the coach for a couple of minutes in descent. Luckily, no-one was killed but the band did suffer terrible injuries and two never felt like they could rejoin the band after they recovered.
I suppose I am saying that these incidents often don't turn out the way they are reported. Tragic whatever ,really.Comment
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Viola Beach
Oh fuck. That's just awful.
I've been in cars and tour vans and had a few scary moments. Our driver on one occasion tried a risky overtaking manoeuvre and narrowly missed a juggernaut coming the opposite direction which took the driver's side wing-mirror clean off at 70mph. He'd been eating acid tabs and drinking just a few hours beforehand and admitted that he was still a big bit fucked. Not that this was the case here, but it's a tenuous existence.
Terrible for the lads and their families mComment
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Viola Beach
It sounds like the driver over or undertook a queue of traffic on one lane of a motorway, not realizing that, er, the bridge ahead was out. As motorway bridges don't do that in the UK, you could forgive the error. Unfortunately, fate didn't. Very sad.Comment
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Viola Beach
I read it as he squeezed past a few other vehicles (literally scraping past in one case) that were waiting at a set of flashing lights before a barrier. I won't make any comment about why the driver might have done this, that is for the Swedish authorities to determine.Comment
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Viola Beach
Well, to be fair to them, even they won't be able to determine WHY he did it. Just maybe see if something can be done to prevent anyone doing it again.Comment
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Viola Beach
Unless there was some catastrophic mechanical failure it seems pretty clear from eye witness statements that it was bad driver error / carelessness. One of those drivers was sitting in the queue behind the barriers and suggested that the band's car went flying past them doing at least 45-50mph.Comment
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Viola Beach
I saw Viola Beach supporting Best Coast at the Kazimier in Liverpool last year. Loads of energy, particularly the drummer who was absolutely manic and I spent much of the gig watching him rather than the singer. Didn't have the feeling I was watching potential superstars, but they were, well, half decent. This is terribly sad.Comment
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Viola Beach
To be fair, some bridges in the UK do this :Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote: As motorway bridges don't do that in the UK, you could forgive the error.
or that :
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Viola Beach
There are pictures of the car in that link Jah Womble posted.
Just as a warning.Comment
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Viola Beach
The entire band is dead? Holy fuck.Comment
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Viola Beach
I live quite close to Södertälje and was talking with tone_burst Jr. about that very bridge at great length when we went past it on a train a couple of days before this happened.
The damage to the car would have been pretty severe even if it had just fallen from the bridge, but it appears to have been compounded by a large boat being allowed to pass through this section of water a few minutes later (the crew of the boat said they saw something fall from the bridge but assumed it was snow / ice and were allowed to pass).
Swedish newspapers have some new information about Trafikverket's response to the nights events - they claim all systems and barriers were up and running and there would have been several warnings about the bridge, starting several hundred metres back up the road.
Unfortunately - and whether this conjures up talk about cover ups and conspiracies remains to be seen - rolling footage of the crossing which - while not saved automatically - could have been "rewound back" 24 hours and then saved was not archived, despite the fact that those concerned had 24 hours to look into this - and have confirmed that the film has been lost, their only explanation being that "no one requested it".
translation of interview with spokesperson at Trafikverket: (i need to practice my Swedish so why not)
"Varför har man inte gjort det vid en så pass allvarlig olycka?
– Detaljerna kring just den här händelsen kan jag inte svara på, men som sagt sparas film inte automatiskt. Om ingen begär att filmen ska sparas så händer inte det. "
"Why have you not done this (ie backed up the film) with such a serious accident?
- I cannot give details about this specific incident but as said, the film is not saved automatically. If no-one requests that the film is to be saved, it isn't"Comment
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Viola Beach
Difficult to see how anyone but the driver could have been to blame. You don't drive at speed (for icy conditions) past cars that are stationary. They're not moving for a reason. He obviously didn't expect a bridge with a gaping hole, but there could have been anything there.
It's tragic, but anyone who drives a car needs to be vigilant and act responsibly, especially in difficult weather and on unfamiliar roads.Comment
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Viola Beach
Fundamentally, you're right. Practically, you've clearly never been in a vehicle full of stupid young men.MsD wrote: Difficult to see how anyone but the driver could have been to blame.Comment
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Viola Beach
Of course I have, just not recently. And stupid young women.Comment
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Viola Beach
I can't speak for stupid young women. But if my friends and I were anything to go by, common sense gets stuffed in the boot when there are four or five guys in the car. I marvel at making it out of my teen years relatively unscathed.Comment
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Viola Beach
To the point of driving around barriers with flashing lights and long queues of vehicles?Comment
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Viola Beach
Seems to me (and I might be wrong) that the only barriers were at the end of the road where it was too late to stop a speeding vehicle. Obviously doesn't excuse hurtling through warning lights and past stationary vehicles, but pretty much what MsD and WOM said.ursus arctos wrote: To the point of driving around barriers with flashing lights and long queues of vehicles?Comment
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Viola Beach
There were at least two sets of barriers, per the reports.Comment
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Viola Beach
Um...like a standard GO train crossing? Yes, my entire life. I've done it dozens of times and seen it done hundreds.ursus arctos wrote: To the point of driving around barriers with flashing lights and long queues of vehicles?
To me, it's no mystery that it went down like this:
"Ah, fuck. It's a bridge or something."
"Look at the queue, mate. We'll be here for ages."
"The bridge isn't up yet. Just go around."
"You figure?"
"Yeah...fuck it."Comment
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Viola Beach
There's a level crossing near my childhood home that sometimes goes down for 15 minutes with no train. People just get antsy and drive around the barriers.Comment
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Viola Beach
I always wondered who did that kind of thing, and guess that now I know.
That said, I tend to think that your imagined dialogue is spot on, particularly, if (as has been reported) they were on their way to the airport and running late.Comment
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Viola Beach
Not so sure. That dialogue suggests they paused, thought about it and pressed on. Reports say the car at no stage slowed down nor deployed any braking.Comment
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