'Google Street View' Picture Of Seattle Bus Crash Is Not Quite What It Seems

A bus hangs over the edge of a huge Seattle highway, its passengers huddled in the snow - safe, now - after coming just inches from disaster.

This might be the scariest thing ever found on Google Maps.

But while the 360-degree image does appear on Google's Street View website, and looks as if it's an official Street View image, the truth is a little bit stranger. And more interesting.

For although the image appeared on various blogsand news sites very recently, it's actually almost five years old. The image is actually the work of Bradford Bohonus, a a photographer from Seattle who specialises in 360-degree VR imagery, and who was shooting that corner just as the bus began to slide down the hill, full of passengers.

And as the accident unfolded, he was on hand to capture the stunning scene.

Bohonus wrote at the time:

"When the second bus passed me it was as if some horrible stage had been set, a chain of events that appeared hopelessly pre-determined. Two buses sliding down the hill towards a 30+ foot cliff over the I-5 interstate. This is the type of thing that one can certainly play out in their mind. I only hoped that what I thought might happen next wasn’t going to happen.

"My relief upon seeing the first bus finally stopped, even if hanging over the edge, was only so very brief, as at that moment, the second bus started sliding and was headed right towards it- crashing into it and sending it a few feet further over the edge before sliding off to the left and hitting the guard rail as well.

Then it was over. Both busses were stopped, did not go over the rail and people began to pour out of the windows to safety. In the end, there were no serious injuries."

The pictures themselves were actually taken after everyone had made it off the busses safely, and no one was in any danger."

Read more about this amazing incident and how the images were captured over at the Bohonus website, and take a look at a full version of the image at Google Street View.

Other amazing places Google Street View has been:

• Under the sea
• Inside a submarine
• The River Thames
• The Large Hadron Collider
• The Zoo
• The Tardis
• The top of the Eiffel Tower
• The world of Harry Potter
• The set of Skyfall
• The Grand Canyon
• Actually inside Google
• The top of the world's tallest building

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