Latest / Crime and Horror / They tried to jump, but they MELTED... - MrBallen
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you two stories that highlight
- 0:03Speaker 1: how the world around us, and even our own eyes,
- 0:06Speaker 1: can play tricks on us. Sometimes what people see is
- 0:09Speaker 1: not what's really going on at all. But once people
- 0:12Speaker 1: have convinced themselves of something, it can be very hard
- 0:15Speaker 1: for them to change their minds. And as you'll see today,
- 0:18Speaker 1: sometimes that can lead people into deadly situations. But before
- 0:22Speaker 1: we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of
- 0:25Speaker 1: the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format... Then
- 0:28Speaker 1: you've come to the right place, because that's all we do,
- 0:31Speaker 1: and we upload two, three, even four times a week. So,
- 0:34Speaker 1: if that's of interest to you, please offer to, for free,
- 0:38Speaker 1: beautifully detail the Like Buttons car. But instead of doing that,
- 0:42Speaker 1: once you have their car, just bring it to a
- 0:44Speaker 1: huge cliff, put the car in neutral, and push it off. Also,
- 0:48Speaker 1: please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications
- 0:51Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our uploads. Okay, let's
- 0:54Speaker 1: get into today's stories. Around 1.30 p.m. on the afternoon
- 1:14Speaker 1: of May 18, 2007, a 57-year-old woman named Yvonne de
- 1:19Speaker 1: Hoord arrived at a park in Rotterdam, which is a
- 1:22Speaker 1: city in the Netherlands. She was there to meet up
- 1:24Speaker 1: with her friend, and she had to cut through the
- 1:26Speaker 1: park to get to his house. Yvonne went to her
- 1:29Speaker 1: friend's house almost every day, and usually when she walked
- 1:32Speaker 1: through the park during the week, there weren't that many
- 1:35Speaker 1: people around. But on this day, it was really crowded
- 1:38Speaker 1: because it was the Friday of a long weekend and
- 1:41Speaker 1: And there was just a lot of families and visitors
- 1:43Speaker 1: that were enjoying the spring weather, which meant the playground,
- 1:46Speaker 1: the pathways, and the park's little cafe were all packed.
- 1:51Speaker 1: But Yvonne didn't pay that much attention to the crowds
- 1:53Speaker 1: because she was busy thinking about her friend. They'd known
- 1:56Speaker 1: each other for years, and they had what she considered
- 1:58Speaker 1: to be a very special connection that Yvonne didn't think
- 2:02Speaker 1: she had with anybody else. Now, Yvonne knew that a
- 2:05Speaker 1: lot of people might say her and her friend's relationship
- 2:08Speaker 1: was sort of more strange than special. In fact, some
- 2:12Speaker 1: people in her life actually openly disapproved of it. But
- 2:15Speaker 1: for Yvonne, it seemed like the main reason for that was,
- 2:18Speaker 1: you know, Yvonne was generally pretty friendly and social and
- 2:21Speaker 1: sort of an outgoing, normal person. But her friend was
- 2:25Speaker 1: extremely reclusive and never left his house. And so it
- 2:28Speaker 1: just seemed like an odd pairing. Her friend was originally
- 2:31Speaker 1: from Germany, but even though he'd lived in the Netherlands
- 2:34Speaker 1: now for years, he'd never learned the language. So he
- 2:37Speaker 1: really couldn't communicate with anybody, including Yvonne, at least not
- 2:41Speaker 1: in her native tongue. But for Yvonne, if anything, the
- 2:44Speaker 1: fact that people didn't necessarily think this was a good
- 2:47Speaker 1: idea for them to be friends just made her feel
- 2:49Speaker 1: more protective of her friend. And also, she was especially
- 2:53Speaker 1: sympathetic to the fact that her friend had actually been
- 2:56Speaker 1: abandoned by his mother as a child. And so in
- 2:59Speaker 1: a way, she sort of felt like she was stepping
- 3:01Speaker 1: in as sort of a maternal figure in her friend's life.
- 3:04Speaker 1: And so Yvonne, she rounded a corner on the park's
- 3:07Speaker 1: path and up ahead, there was her friend's house. And
- 3:10Speaker 1: she could actually see her friend through one of the windows.
- 3:13Speaker 1: And he did not look particularly happy. He looked sort
- 3:15Speaker 1: of dejected. And so as she approached, you know, she
- 3:18Speaker 1: made a big scene to be very smiley and happy.
- 3:21Speaker 1: And she's waving to her friend. And sure enough, her
- 3:24Speaker 1: friend at some point turned and looked out the window
- 3:27Speaker 1: and saw Yvonne approaching. And he broke into a big
- 3:29Speaker 1: smile and he waved back. you know, it's like, even
- 3:32Speaker 1: though they didn't speak the same language, there clearly was
- 3:35Speaker 1: a connection there. And Yvonne was just filled with happiness,
- 3:38Speaker 1: you know, so glad that she was here to see him.
- 3:40Speaker 1: And so Yvonne, she made her way over to her friend.
- 3:42Speaker 1: And that day really was spent the same way they
- 3:45Speaker 1: spent all their other days together, which again, they don't
- 3:48Speaker 1: speak the same language. So it was just sort of
- 3:50Speaker 1: a lot of, you know, body language and gestures and
- 3:54Speaker 1: sort of just sitting together and just sort of enjoying
- 3:57Speaker 1: each other's company. There wasn't really any direct communication happening,
- 4:01Speaker 1: but This was a unique relationship and for Yvonne, whatever
- 4:05Speaker 1: it was, was enough for her. And she felt like
- 4:07Speaker 1: for her friend, it was reciprocated. He appreciated their time
- 4:10Speaker 1: together and that was enough. But even though Yvonne in
- 4:14Speaker 1: particular really looked forward to these visits and was having
- 4:17Speaker 1: a really nice time on this particular day, she couldn't
- 4:20Speaker 1: stay forever. She had a family and other things she
- 4:23Speaker 1: needed to get done. So at around 2.30 p.m., after
- 4:26Speaker 1: having spent about an hour with her friend, She said
- 4:28Speaker 1: goodbye to him, and then she turned and left, knowing
- 4:31Speaker 1: that the two of them would see each other again soon.
- 4:33Speaker 1: And so Yvonne, after turning and leaving her friend's house,
- 4:37Speaker 1: she only got a few steps down the path she
- 4:39Speaker 1: came in on when two things happened at once. The
- 4:42Speaker 1: first thing was, she noticed there was a group of
- 4:45Speaker 1: kids in the park who were throwing rocks. And she
- 4:48Speaker 1: knew instinctively, like, the kids should not be throwing rocks.
- 4:51Speaker 1: So that sort of registered. She wasn't doing anything about it,
- 4:54Speaker 1: but she was just aware that there are children throwing
- 4:57Speaker 1: rocks nearby. And then the second thing she noticed is
- 4:59Speaker 1: she heard splashing coming from behind her. She didn't think
- 5:03Speaker 1: it was coming from the kids throwing rocks. She's thinking
- 5:06Speaker 1: it didn't rain anytime recently. So there's no reason that
- 5:08Speaker 1: there'd be splashing sounds around her. There's no puddles or anything.
- 5:12Speaker 1: The only splashing that made sense was it was coming
- 5:15Speaker 1: from the stream that was sort of off limits in
- 5:18Speaker 1: the park. Nobody had access to it. There was no
- 5:20Speaker 1: reason to get down there to that stream. But it
- 5:23Speaker 1: sounded very much like that was the splashing that she
- 5:27Speaker 1: was hearing. And so Yvonne, she's just consciously aware of
- 5:30Speaker 1: these things happening. This was not something that was alarming.
- 5:33Speaker 1: She's just aware. And so she found herself turning around
- 5:37Speaker 1: to see in particular what that splashing sound was. And
- 5:41Speaker 1: as she turned around, something huge smashed into her, pinned
- 5:46Speaker 1: her to the ground. All she could hear was screaming
- 5:48Speaker 1: throughout the park. And the last thought she had before
- 5:51Speaker 1: she blacked out was, oh my God, I'm about to die.
- 6:00Speaker 1: Not far away, a man named Arvid Hendricks, who had
- 6:04Speaker 1: also come to the same park with his wife and
- 6:06Speaker 1: his two kids, heard the screams echoing through the park.
- 6:09Speaker 1: He was right outside the cafe that Yvonne had been
- 6:12Speaker 1: walking towards, and he had just been about to go
- 6:14Speaker 1: inside when all this commotion had started. So this particular
- 6:17Speaker 1: cafe sat on a path that cut through the park itself.
- 6:21Speaker 1: It was a small place, almost like a glorified snack bar.
- 6:25Speaker 1: And it had a big pavilion right in front of
- 6:26Speaker 1: it with outdoor seating that looked out over the park.
- 6:29Speaker 1: And from Arvid's perspective, as he was standing on that
- 6:32Speaker 1: pavilion near the cafe entrance, he could hear these people
- 6:35Speaker 1: screaming and actually started to see them running in his direction.
- 6:39Speaker 1: But Arvid had no idea what they were screaming about
- 6:43Speaker 1: or what they were running from. It just seemed like
- 6:45Speaker 1: all of a sudden everybody's panicking and coming this way.
- 6:49Speaker 1: And so instinctively, Arvid's thinking, okay, there's something threatening going on,
- 6:53Speaker 1: and he needs to make sure his family is safe
- 6:56Speaker 1: before he even knows what the threat is. So he
- 6:59Speaker 1: grabbed his kids and his wife, and he ran into
- 7:01Speaker 1: the restaurant along with everybody else. And remember, this restaurant,
- 7:05Speaker 1: this cafe, was not huge. Inside, it sort of felt
- 7:08Speaker 1: like a dining hall with large communal tables. And so
- 7:11Speaker 1: with all these people rushing inside, this place quickly became chaotic.
- 7:15Speaker 1: And then after all these people came inside... A few
- 7:18Speaker 1: of the people went forward and did their best to
- 7:21Speaker 1: barricade the front doors. Even though they were glass and
- 7:24Speaker 1: would be pretty easy to break through, they did what
- 7:26Speaker 1: they could to sort of block them off. After this,
- 7:29Speaker 1: despite there still being this really intense energy sort of
- 7:32Speaker 1: buzzing around the room, things actually kind of calmed down.
- 7:35Speaker 1: You know, Arvid and probably many other people in this
- 7:38Speaker 1: cafe did not know what was going on. They just
- 7:41Speaker 1: sort of reacted instinctively and went in here, assuming there
- 7:45Speaker 1: has to be some real threat out there. Let's take shelter.
- 7:48Speaker 1: And so there's this weird lull period where everyone's kind
- 7:51Speaker 1: of looking around, Arvid included, trying to figure out, is
- 7:54Speaker 1: there really a big threat out there or are we
- 7:56Speaker 1: overreacting here? And as they're all sitting there kind of
- 8:00Speaker 1: wondering what's going on. The front doors, the glass doors,
- 8:04Speaker 1: suddenly shatter. And once again, the whole group is thrust
- 8:08Speaker 1: into absolute chaos once again, as all the parents are
- 8:12Speaker 1: grabbing their kids, and even though they still don't really
- 8:14Speaker 1: know what's going on, they're trying to rush towards those
- 8:18Speaker 1: shattered doors. to get out, get out of this place,
- 8:20Speaker 1: which now feels like it is dangerous, in some ways
- 8:23Speaker 1: worse than outside. And so it's this huge bottleneck as
- 8:26Speaker 1: the door, as everyone's screaming, there's just madness happening. And Arvid,
- 8:30Speaker 1: he could tell there was no way he could get
- 8:33Speaker 1: through this cluster of people desperately trying to get out.
- 8:37Speaker 1: And so he just grabbed his wife and his kids,
- 8:39Speaker 1: and they went under one of the tables, and they hid.
- 8:41Speaker 1: And for the next couple of minutes, everything all around
- 8:44Speaker 1: Arvid and his family disappeared. continued to be absolutely chaotic
- 8:48Speaker 1: and madness. But then eventually, everything just went quiet as
- 8:53Speaker 1: everybody else made their way out of the cafe. And
- 8:55Speaker 1: it was just Arvid and his family sitting there wondering
- 8:58Speaker 1: what the heck is going on. And for a moment,
- 9:01Speaker 1: Arvid felt like, okay, I'm safe. You know, I don't
- 9:05Speaker 1: know what's going on, but you know, me and my family,
- 9:07Speaker 1: we are safe. However, before he instructed his kids and
- 9:10Speaker 1: his wife to come out of their hiding spot, he
- 9:13Speaker 1: heard the sound of more glass shattering and And then
- 9:15Speaker 1: he heard these loud stomping sounds as something huge was
- 9:20Speaker 1: making its way through those front doors into the cafe.
- 9:24Speaker 1: And suddenly it hit Arvid when he looked out and
- 9:27Speaker 1: saw what it was, why everybody was running. And he
- 9:31Speaker 1: also realized that he and his family were now trapped.
- 9:35Speaker 1: It would turn out all the people in Yvonne's life
- 9:38Speaker 1: who frowned on her special friendship had been right to
- 9:41Speaker 1: do so. Because although Yvonne loved her daily routine with
- 9:45Speaker 1: her friend, her friend did not actually feel the same way.
- 9:49Speaker 1: Every day when Yvonne went to visit, she would sit
- 9:52Speaker 1: with her friend and keep him company. And Yvonne's friend
- 9:55Speaker 1: would smile back at her. This was sort of the
- 9:58Speaker 1: rapport they had developed. at least in Yvonne's mind. The
- 10:02Speaker 1: smiling back and forth suggested they were friends. What Yvonne
- 10:06Speaker 1: didn't realize is that them smiling back and forth was
- 10:10Speaker 1: actually something her friend hated. And on that particular Friday afternoon,
- 10:16Speaker 1: her friend was already in a very bad mood. The
- 10:19Speaker 1: park that surrounded his house was so crowded and so loud.
- 10:23Speaker 1: And those kids who Yvonne saw throwing rocks when she
- 10:26Speaker 1: left had been doing it earlier. They were throwing rocks
- 10:29Speaker 1: that whole time that she was visiting with her friend.
- 10:31Speaker 1: And some of those rocks were hitting her friend's house.
- 10:34Speaker 1: And it was making him so agitated and mad. And
- 10:37Speaker 1: then the whole time through this interaction, Yvonne is smiling
- 10:41Speaker 1: over and over at her friend thinking this is so great.
- 10:44Speaker 1: And it just totally sent her friend over the edge.
- 10:47Speaker 1: And so when Yvonne finally left and walked away, the friend,
- 10:52Speaker 1: you know, should have felt relieved because now, you know,
- 10:54Speaker 1: one of the things that was really agitating him was gone. Yvonne,
- 10:58Speaker 1: she was gone. But the friend knew she wasn't really
- 11:01Speaker 1: leaving for good. She would just come back tomorrow like
- 11:04Speaker 1: she always did with that same enraging smile on top
- 11:09Speaker 1: of all the other things that were so annoying. And
- 11:13Speaker 1: the friend just could not take it any longer. So
- 11:16Speaker 1: he snapped. He stormed out of his house, splashing through
- 11:19Speaker 1: that off-limits stream in the park to get to Yvonne
- 11:23Speaker 1: as she walked away. And just before he reached her,
- 11:27Speaker 1: she turned around and saw him. This time, he smiled
- 11:31Speaker 1: at Yvonne before she could smile at him. And for once,
- 11:36Speaker 1: she didn't smile back. Instead, she looked terrified. And this
- 11:40Speaker 1: was because Yvonne's friend was a 400-pound silverback gorilla named Boquito.
- 11:48Speaker 1: In the park he lived in was a zoo. To
- 11:50Speaker 1: silverback gorillas, smiling is not a sign of friendship. It's
- 11:54Speaker 1: a sign of aggression and hostility. So it's very likely
- 11:58Speaker 1: that from Boquito's point of view... Almost every day for years,
- 12:02Speaker 1: Yvonne had been coming to his enclosure, in essence, to
- 12:06Speaker 1: threaten him. At least that's very likely how he interpreted it.
- 12:10Speaker 1: And he had been basically threatening her back whenever he
- 12:12Speaker 1: smiled by showing his teeth. And he thought maybe that
- 12:16Speaker 1: would get her to go away, but it never worked.
- 12:19Speaker 1: She always came back and just continued to threaten him.
- 12:21Speaker 1: And so eventually, like the story goes, it became too much.
- 12:26Speaker 1: Luckily though, Bokito didn't harm really anybody necessarily. except for Yvonne.
- 12:31Speaker 1: He bit her over a hundred times and broke multiple bones,
- 12:34Speaker 1: but Yvonne did survive. But no other guests were harmed,
- 12:38Speaker 1: including Arvid and his family. You know, they were trapped
- 12:41Speaker 1: in that cafe with Boquito, who after attacking Yvonne had
- 12:45Speaker 1: charged in there and was walking around, but Boquito never attacked.
- 12:49Speaker 1: And so at a certain point, Arvid and his family
- 12:51Speaker 1: were able to run to safety. After she recovered, Yvonne
- 12:54Speaker 1: would tell the media that Boquito was still her darling.
- 12:58Speaker 1: That's what she called him. And in fact, she would
- 13:00Speaker 1: go back to the zoo to see Boquito after that.
- 13:03Speaker 1: But this time, she didn't smile. At 3 a.m. on
- 13:19Speaker 1: August 11, 1965, a 19-year-old student named Allie Dogen sat
- 13:25Speaker 1: in the front seat of a passenger bus as it
- 13:27Speaker 1: headed down a dark, narrow road in northwest Turkey. Ali
- 13:31Speaker 1: and about 50 other passengers were on their way from
- 13:33Speaker 1: the city of Ankara to Istanbul, which is the largest
- 13:36Speaker 1: city in Turkey, and they were about three hours into
- 13:39Speaker 1: a five-hour trip. Ali had passed the time so far
- 13:42Speaker 1: by speaking with the man who just happened to be
- 13:44Speaker 1: sitting next to him. He was an Air Force lieutenant.
- 13:46Speaker 1: The lieutenant told Ali that originally he had actually been
- 13:49Speaker 1: booked to take a flight to Istanbul, but he had
- 13:52Speaker 1: missed the flight, and so here he was on the bus.
- 13:55Speaker 1: But he told Ali that actually he was really enjoying
- 13:58Speaker 1: this bus ride He had never been on a long
- 14:01Speaker 1: bus ride before, and critically, he had scored the very
- 14:04Speaker 1: front seat in the bus, so he could basically see
- 14:07Speaker 1: out the front window of the bus. And so for him,
- 14:10Speaker 1: that was kind of exhilarating. And for Allie, he had
- 14:12Speaker 1: actually switched spots with a previous passenger who had been
- 14:15Speaker 1: sitting next to the lieutenant when they first boarded. He
- 14:18Speaker 1: had switched with that person because Allie, the reason he
- 14:21Speaker 1: was switching, was he wanted that view too. And so
- 14:23Speaker 1: he and this lieutenant were sort of bonding over their
- 14:26Speaker 1: shared excitement over, you know, watching the road as they
- 14:28Speaker 1: drove for hours on end. Ali and the lieutenant spoke
- 14:31Speaker 1: in very quiet voices since almost everybody else on the
- 14:34Speaker 1: bus was fast asleep. But, you know, these two, they're pumped,
- 14:38Speaker 1: they're watching the road, they're talking about it quietly. But
- 14:41Speaker 1: at a certain point, Ali, despite his enthusiasm for this ride,
- 14:45Speaker 1: he started to feel pretty drowsy too. Ali was on
- 14:48Speaker 1: his way back to Istanbul where he went to college.
- 14:51Speaker 1: And later that day, because right now it's 3 a.m.,
- 14:54Speaker 1: later that day, he had a big exam. And he
- 14:57Speaker 1: knew that as much as he wanted to stay up
- 14:59Speaker 1: and sort of enjoy the ride, he really needed to
- 15:01Speaker 1: get some sleep. So he took his sweatshirt and rolled
- 15:04Speaker 1: it up like a pillow, put it behind his head,
- 15:06Speaker 1: told the lieutenant he was going to sleep for a bit,
- 15:08Speaker 1: and then he put his head back and closed his eyes. However,
- 15:12Speaker 1: about 15 minutes later, when Allie was just really beginning
- 15:15Speaker 1: to actually fall asleep... the bus was suddenly filled with
- 15:19Speaker 1: screams and Allie, he opened his eyes and he was
- 15:22Speaker 1: looking out forward in the direction the bus was going.
- 15:24Speaker 1: And he saw these bright headlights bearing down on the
- 15:27Speaker 1: bus and he knew they're about to collide with somebody
- 15:30Speaker 1: on the road. And then the bus hard swerved to
- 15:33Speaker 1: the right and Allie's trying to hold onto the partition
- 15:35Speaker 1: to keep himself seated. Then he's getting ready to smash
- 15:38Speaker 1: into this other vehicle. But right at the last second,
- 15:40Speaker 1: the bus turns and slams off the road and comes
- 15:43Speaker 1: crashing down and in this ditch right off the side
- 15:46Speaker 1: of the road. And then the bus kind of lurched
- 15:49Speaker 1: to a stop because the bus driver was able to
- 15:51Speaker 1: stop the crash. And for a second, you know, Allie's
- 15:53Speaker 1: looking around. Everyone's so shaken up by this. And he's feeling,
- 15:57Speaker 1: you know, very relieved that they did not smash into
- 16:00Speaker 1: an oncoming car. But despite feeling that relief, Allie quickly
- 16:04Speaker 1: realized they had another problem. The bus was starting to
- 16:08Speaker 1: fill with smoke. And so Allie and the lieutenant, in
- 16:11Speaker 1: virtue of sitting at the very front of the bus...
- 16:13Speaker 1: were the closest to the door leading off the bus.
- 16:16Speaker 1: And now clearly everybody needs to evacuate. There's some kind
- 16:19Speaker 1: of fire that's happening because of the crash they've just
- 16:22Speaker 1: been in. And so Allie and the lieutenant, they stand
- 16:24Speaker 1: up and the bus is kind of at a slant
- 16:26Speaker 1: here because they're in this ditch and they go up
- 16:29Speaker 1: to the very front of the bus and they actually
- 16:30Speaker 1: look out the cracked front windshield and they see there's
- 16:34Speaker 1: this huge truck also in the ditch on the side
- 16:36Speaker 1: of the road. And they're figuring that they must have
- 16:38Speaker 1: collided in some way. Like that was the truck that
- 16:41Speaker 1: forced the bus off the road. And so it's like, okay,
- 16:44Speaker 1: they've gotten into this accident. There's clearly a fire. We
- 16:46Speaker 1: just got to get off this bus. And so Allie
- 16:49Speaker 1: and the lieutenant, they get to the door and they
- 16:51Speaker 1: try to open it. But the way the bus kind
- 16:53Speaker 1: of crashed into this ditch, it sort of warped the
- 16:56Speaker 1: frame of the bus. And so the lieutenant, he got
- 16:59Speaker 1: down there and he began smashing on this door to
- 17:01Speaker 1: try to open it up. And as this is happening,
- 17:03Speaker 1: the smoke is getting much more intense inside of this bus.
- 17:07Speaker 1: And all the people on the bus, the 50 some
- 17:10Speaker 1: odd passengers behind them, They're starting to panic. Everyone's rushing forward,
- 17:14Speaker 1: bumping into Allie and the lieutenant, trying to get off
- 17:17Speaker 1: this bus. And then finally, the lieutenant, he manages to
- 17:20Speaker 1: force open the doors. And the second he does, this
- 17:22Speaker 1: additional rush of black smoke comes pouring into the bus.
- 17:27Speaker 1: It's like you can't even see anything. Everyone's choking and screaming.
- 17:30Speaker 1: And the lieutenant, he just yells to Allie to go,
- 17:33Speaker 1: get out, jump out. And so Allie, he's the first
- 17:35Speaker 1: one off the bus. He climbs down the steps. All
- 17:38Speaker 1: he sees is smoke everywhere. He really has no idea
- 17:41Speaker 1: where the fire is actually coming from. And so instinctively,
- 17:44Speaker 1: he just jumps out of the bus, just jumps as
- 17:47Speaker 1: high and as far as he possibly can. And he
- 17:49Speaker 1: actually hits the other side of the ditch and he
- 17:52Speaker 1: kind of stumbles and climbs up and gets away from
- 17:55Speaker 1: the bus. And as soon as he did, he turned
- 17:57Speaker 1: around and he's looking at the bus and it's nighttime.
- 18:00Speaker 1: But even still in the darkness, he just sees the
- 18:02Speaker 1: bus moving. is completely engulfed in all this smoke. He
- 18:06Speaker 1: can't quite tell where the fire is. He's thinking, you know,
- 18:09Speaker 1: the engine must have caught fire and it's spreading across
- 18:11Speaker 1: the undercarriage of the bus, but it's getting so bad.
- 18:14Speaker 1: And he's hearing all the people on board desperately trying
- 18:17Speaker 1: to get off out that door the lieutenant had forced open.
- 18:21Speaker 1: But there's some kind of bottleneck. They're not getting out.
- 18:24Speaker 1: It's like they're stampeding towards the front of the bus.
- 18:26Speaker 1: People are screaming. It's chaos. And then Allie hears some
- 18:29Speaker 1: of the windows being pushed open. People start jumping out
- 18:32Speaker 1: the windows. I mean, they are desperate to get off
- 18:35Speaker 1: this bus. And at first, what Allie hears are screams
- 18:39Speaker 1: of what sounds like desperate and scared people just trying
- 18:43Speaker 1: to evacuate. But quickly, those screams, when the folks started
- 18:46Speaker 1: coming out of the bus, turned to pure agony. But
- 18:53Speaker 1: as Ali is listening to this and watching this disaster unfold,
- 18:57Speaker 1: he's thinking, okay, well, the reason they're screaming is because
- 19:00Speaker 1: it's possible they could be catching on fire here or maybe,
- 19:03Speaker 1: you know, they're jumping off and breaking bones or getting
- 19:06Speaker 1: hurt from leaping out the window and that's all terrible.
- 19:10Speaker 1: But people are getting out of this bus and before long,
- 19:13Speaker 1: they're going to come up and over that side of
- 19:15Speaker 1: the ditch and they're going to join me. Like these people,
- 19:17Speaker 1: they're coming out of the bus. I'm seeing it happen.
- 19:20Speaker 1: But all that happened is is the screams of agony
- 19:23Speaker 1: got louder and louder, and nobody came over that ditch.
- 19:28Speaker 1: It was Ali all alone, and he had no idea why.
- 19:31Speaker 1: All he sees is smoke, and all he hears is screams.
- 19:35Speaker 1: And then at some point, authorities show up, and they
- 19:37Speaker 1: clearly are right into the fray, trying to extinguish whatever
- 19:41Speaker 1: fire is going on, and trying to get people out
- 19:44Speaker 1: and away from the bus. But despite this huge effort
- 19:47Speaker 1: that Allie's watching happen right in front of him, granted
- 19:50Speaker 1: it's obscured by the smoke, still nobody, including the lieutenant,
- 19:55Speaker 1: came over the ditch to come be with Allie. He
- 19:58Speaker 1: was all alone. But eventually, Allie noticed a few of
- 20:02Speaker 1: the authorities that had shown up to assist in this
- 20:05Speaker 1: emergency were walking away from the smoke and the bus
- 20:08Speaker 1: and carrying what appeared to be bodies. But as Ali
- 20:12Speaker 1: stared at these people carrying these bodies, he realized they
- 20:16Speaker 1: weren't whole bodies. They were body parts. It would turn
- 20:22Speaker 1: out most of Ali's and the rest of the passengers'
- 20:25Speaker 1: assumptions about exactly what happened in that crash were correct.
- 20:29Speaker 1: The bus they were riding in did swerve after seeing
- 20:32Speaker 1: the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. And it did hit
- 20:35Speaker 1: that big truck they saw on the side of the
- 20:37Speaker 1: road when Allie and the lieutenant first got to the
- 20:39Speaker 1: front of the bus and looked out. That was the
- 20:41Speaker 1: truck they hit. Now, it was not a head-on collision.
- 20:44Speaker 1: It was sort of a glancing blow as the bus
- 20:46Speaker 1: swerved to avoid a head-on collision. But that crash sent
- 20:51Speaker 1: the bus off the road into the ditch. And it
- 20:54Speaker 1: was that crash into the ditch that ultimately prompted all
- 20:58Speaker 1: that smoke. But they were all wrong about what was
- 21:02Speaker 1: causing that smoke. There was no fire. The truck that
- 21:06Speaker 1: the bus narrowly avoided the head-on collision with, but did
- 21:09Speaker 1: ultimately strike, causing both the bus to crash and the
- 21:12Speaker 1: truck to crash, that truck was a shipping truck, and
- 21:16Speaker 1: it was transporting a huge amount of freight to Istanbul.
- 21:20Speaker 1: And the collision burst the truck's shipping containers, and so
- 21:24Speaker 1: the contents of those containers, the freight itself, poured out
- 21:29Speaker 1: into that ditch. And that ditch that basically the bus
- 21:32Speaker 1: had landed inside of, that alley had sort of jumped
- 21:35Speaker 1: over on his way to get out of the bus
- 21:37Speaker 1: and that others were sort of falling into when they
- 21:39Speaker 1: were coming out of the bus to avoid this, you know,
- 21:42Speaker 1: fire or so they thought, it already had some water
- 21:45Speaker 1: in it when that freight entered into the ditch. So
- 21:48Speaker 1: the freight and the water combined. And that combination caused
- 21:52Speaker 1: a chemical reaction and that chemical reaction caused the smoke.
- 21:57Speaker 1: Because that freight was nitric acid, a highly corrosive, highly
- 22:02Speaker 1: toxic liquid chemical that now, despite being diluted by the
- 22:07Speaker 1: water in the ditch, had basically filled the ditch. The
- 22:10Speaker 1: ditch is now effectively an acid bath that's smoking, giving
- 22:14Speaker 1: the impression the bus is on fire. And so all
- 22:17Speaker 1: these folks are leaping out of the bus and landing
- 22:21Speaker 1: in the ditch, which again is an acid bath, and
- 22:24Speaker 1: they're being dissolved by the acid. Allie, when he left
- 22:28Speaker 1: the bus first, he leapt out of the bus. He
- 22:31Speaker 1: thought there was the fire right there, and he jumped
- 22:33Speaker 1: up and out trying to clear the fire. And what
- 22:36Speaker 1: he really did is he cleared the acid bath and
- 22:39Speaker 1: landed on the other side, avoiding dissolving in the acid.
- 22:43Speaker 1: But virtually everybody else in the bus... was going right
- 22:47Speaker 1: into the acid. And so in the end, of the
- 22:50Speaker 1: nearly 50 people onboard that bus, 26 literally dissolved to death.
- 23:01Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
- 23:03Speaker 1: know what you thought of it in the comments below.
- 23:06Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of Places You
- 23:08Speaker 1: Can't Go episodes ready for you to binge right now.
- 23:12Speaker 1: So go ahead and click here and give them a watch.
- 23:15Speaker 1: All right, until next time, see ya.