> They declined the city’s offer to tow the bus because the vehicle was in too poor condition to handle it, they said.

This tells me one of two things. Either the bus was in such poor shape that it absolutely should not have ever been on the road or that the owners knew if they made themselves a big enough nuisance that someone would "fix" the breakdown for them for free / cheaper than a service call.

Since the article also notes that a mechanic eventually showed up to prime the engine and get it moving again; I'm voting in favor of the latter, with the added kicker that the owners of the bus are idiots who should have their licenses revoked.

Running out of fuel in a diesel vehicle is certainly a bigger PITA than doing so with a gas car but getting a prime almost never takes more than 1 or wrench. Crack open the line on the fuel pump, crank engine until the bubbles stop coming out the the line. Tighten it, then do the same thing on your injectors*. Should take less than 10 minutes and is absolutely something every owner of a diesel should know how to do on their vehicle. 10 seconds on google gives you dozens of videos and articles showing you exactly how to do it.

* Technically most diesels you can get away with just cranking the engine in 30-40 second bursts given enough time for the starter to cool down between attempts but this is more abusive to the starter and depending on how badly you lost the prime you can kill your batteries before you actually get it started.