Congress to DOT: If You Won’t Fix the Motor-Coach Problem, We Will

On Interstate 95 in Virginia, a bus carrying 59 passengers on their way from North Carolina to New York overturned, leaving four dead and dozens injured. The driver had fallen asleep at the wheel, a problem that has been highlighted recently not only among bus drivers, but also among truck drivers.

Just as the bus started to veer off the road, the driver awoke and swerved back onto the busy interstate. But the correction was too much for the bus, which overturned, crippling part of the cabin's roof. The driver, Kin Yiu Cheung, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

The bus was owned by Sky Express of North Carolina, a company that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the Department of Transportation (DOT) had failed to shut down, despite its numerous previous safety violations. On April 12, just weeks before the accident in Virginia, regulators at FMCSA had given Sky Express an unsatisfactory rating and could have shut the company down, but decided to extend their review for 10 days to build up a case and check for other violations. Meanwhile, Sky Express continued to carry passengers, despite the major safety violations.

President Obama and his administration have proposed stricter regulations for motor-coach carriers like Sky Express. So far though, even Secretary Ray LaHood, head of the DOT, has said that FMCSA has not been doing its job. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a rule that would require seat belts on new buses, but the rule has not been finalized, and buses currently on the road would not have to install seatbelts.

In a statement released by the American Bus Association, association president Pete Pantuso cited bad drivers and companies with poor safety records as the main causes of bus fatalities. "We first need to get the bad guys off the road," said Pantuso.

Installing seat belts in buses and requiring safety inspections is exactly what a new bill up for debate in the U.S. Senate will address. Co-authored by Senators Sherrod Brown (OH) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (TX), the Motor-Coach Enhanced Safety Act of 2011 (S453) passed Senate committee review earlier this year.

Senator Hutchinson cites a lack of action by the DOT and a needlessly high death rate from bus accidents as the stimulus for this bill. In 2009, more than 720 million passengers rode motor coaches, and with gas prices on the rise, the industry expects that bus travel will continue to outpace air and rail travel as the fastest growing sector of transportation. Half of all bus accident fatalities occur because of rollover accidents, and 70 percent of those fatalities are because the passenger was thrown from the bus.

The bill aims to hold motor-coaches to the same high safety standards that are required of airplanes and cars. Also, all motor-coach companies would be required to undergo safety inspections to ensure safe operation of the buses before they even carry a passenger. Senator Hutchinson hopes this will eliminate "reincarnated carriers," which are bus companies that are taken out of service because of extensive safety violations, but that find ways to operate under new names.

Whether Congress passes the Motor-Coach Enhanced Safety Act, or FMCSA initiates new rules for these carriers, one thing is clear - the safety of American consumers is at stake.