A giant white smoke monster rolled up North Campus Drive on Tuesday morning.
The red line campus shuttle blew its turbo and started shooting white smoke out of its rear engine as it drove up the street.
Fuel was falling into the cylinders, said Jake Green, a Commuter Services transportation manager on the scene.
“None of us knew what to do, it was so weird,” said Megan Loveless, a sophomore in secondary education.
Smoke was billowing out of the bus like a cloudy tail, and a boy in the back of the bus was shouting at the driver, “Hey, we’re on fire!” she said.
The bus was moving very slowly as it lost power, until it finally came to a halt on Central Campus Drive by the Warnock Engineering Building parking lot.
When the shuttle stopped and the doors opened to let its 20 passengers out, the smoke was three times as tall as the bus, said Larry Miner, the bus driver. Stopping on North Campus Drive is dangerous because it’s an incline and there isn’t a safe place for a bus to stop in the middle of traffic, he said.
No passengers were injured or required medical attention, said Salt Lake City Fire Department Fire Captain Marty Peters.
The passengers waited down the street until another bus arrived to pick them up, Miner said.
Green said the turbo must be a freak malfunction from the assembly line, because they usually break down because of wear and tear and the bus is relatively new. The part was still on warranty, but shrapnel that might have busted other parts of the engine could cost as much as several thousand dollars to repair, he said.
“At least we made it up the hill,” Loveless said. “We weren’t sure we were going to make it.”
Erik DaenitzSalt Lake City Fire Captain Marty Peterson and police officers Gabe Jacquez and Denice Bradfield responded to the campus shuttle that was emitting large amounts of white smoke as it drove up North Campus Drive Tuesday afternoon.