Federal safety report finds curbside buses have higher fatal accident rate

Kris Alingod - AHN News Contributor
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) - Buses that pick up passengers curbside have a higher incidence of fatal accidents than buses that stay at terminals, according to a report by the National Transportation and Safety Board.

NTSB Chair Deborah Hersman released the first comprehensive report on bus safety on Monday after a six-month study. She revealed that curbside buses are seven times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than conventional carriers.
The agency reviewed data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from January 2005 to March 2011. It found that there were 1.4 deadly accidents per 100 vehicles for curbside buses that have fewer than 10 carriers or that have been in business less than a decade, compared with 0.2 fatal incidents for buses that operate from terminals.
According to the report, curbside buses are also more likely to be out-of-service due to driver violations such as fatigued driving and fitness violations, compared with conventional carriers.
Hersman said safety violations are not discovered because curbside buses are excluded from regular enroute inspections. The buses also rely on online bus brokers, which the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has no authority to regulate.
In addition, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has a lack of inspectors and enforcers. The agency has 878 employees reviewing compliance of more than 765,000 buses, a ratio of 1 worker to 1,000 carriers.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who requested the study, called the findings a "wake-up call."
The review was in response to a spate of deadly accidents early this year. A bus operated by World Wide Tours crashed in the Bronx in March as it was making its way to Chinatown on I-95, killing 15 passengers.
At least two other major accidents occurred the same month. Two people died and dozens were injured when a tour bus bound for Philadelphia crashed on the New Jersey Turnpike. On I-95, a bus operated by PRT tours rolled over on its way to Boston.
The second crash resulted in only injuries while the first prompted the U.S. Transportation Department to order Super Luxury Tours out of service and canceled the company's license for violating insurance requirements.
In a Senate hearing following the accidents, Hersman had testified that the two most important factors in bus safety are the condition of the vehicles and the performance of the drivers, but that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has not taken this into account in compliance reviews.
According to Hersman, the NTSB issued a number of recommendations years ago, such as installing seat belts and better emergency exits for children, the elderly and the disabled.
In response, lawmakers had criticized the Transportation Department for failing to implement the recommendations. They called for the passage of a bill, first introduced in 2009, requiring seatbelts, anti-ejection glazing on windows, stronger roofs to withstand rollovers, and reduced flammability of bus interiors.
According to the NTSB, there are nearly the same number of passengers on buses every year, 750 million, as there in commercial aviation, 800 million. Fatalities from motorcoach operations average 20 annually, while in aviation there are 70 deaths.

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