Putting the Brakes on Bus Accidents
I recently wrote about the tragic Sherman bus crash that occurred last Friday. Now we can add two other major bus crashes to the list. On Thursday, August 7th, a bus carrying workers to a casino in Primm, Nevada drove off a freeway, crashed into a guardrail and caught fire. At least 25 people were injured, with three in critical condition. On Sunday, August 10th, a Harrah's Casino bus was carrying 43 people from Tunica, Mississippi to the airport when it flipped over into a median at an intersection in Tunica, Mississippi. Three women were killed and 27 others were hospitalized.
Despite the fact that 52 people died in passenger bus accidents in the past six year in Texas alone, not much has been done in the way of reform. However, new legislation has been proposed since the recent rash of bus accidents. On Monday in Washington, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, issued statements called for the passage of the "Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act," which would require bus owners to provide seat belts, fire extinguishers and other safety precautions. The bill is scheduled for a hearing next month.
But even if the bill is approved, what about the poorly maintained buses that operate illegally with problems such as retread tires, expired permits and jailbird bus drivers? Regarding Friday's Sherman, Texas bus crash, Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said, "It's inexcusable on the federal and state level that someone could do what was reported. They lost their permit, reapplied, and continued to operate. That's just an embarrassment to the whole system."
Three years ago, 23 elderly evacuees were killed while attempting escape from Hurricane Rita due to poor maintenance of the passenger coach which caught on fire. As a result of that incident, 17 recommendations were made by the National Transportation Safety Board that included four major bus regulations. To date, the National Highway Safety Administration has yet to respond with new federal regulations that would implement the NTSB's recommendations.
Illegal operation and lax safety measures of passenger buses must come to a screeching halt. One surefire way to force change is for victims and families of bus accidents to hold the responsible parties accountable for their actions. My firm, Heygood, Orr, Reyes, Pearson & Bartolomei, helps victims and families of life-altering personal injuries such as these. For more information, email me at Angel@ReyesLaw.com.
Please read the Houston Chronicle article regarding proposed bus safety regulations below:
Recent accidents make bus safety top issue in D.C., Austin
More accidents over the weekend put issue on every politician's agenda
By TERRI LANGFORD, JAMES PINKERTON and CLAY ROBISON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 11, 2008, 11:50PM
Federal safety officials Monday ordered Iguala BusMex and Angel Tours Inc. to cease commercial operations while last week's fatal accident in North Texas is investigated.
Safety experts and Texas lawmakers called for tougher enforcement of motor carrier regulations Monday as federal investigators combed for clues to what caused an illegal bus to crash in North Texas, killing 17 Vietnamese Catholics from Houston.
"As the feds sort through this crash, we'll learn what went wrong and look for opportunities to make sure that a tragedy like this never happens again," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, referring to the Sherman accident.
In Washington and Austin, lawmakers echoed that sentiment as two more bus crashes in Mississippi and Nevada over the weekend put bus safety back on every politician's agenda. On Sunday, three women were killed when the tour bus they were riding in rolled over, while 29 people were injured in an unrelated crash after their bus left the road in Nevada.
In Washington, Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, issued statements Monday calling for the passage of their legislation, known as the Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act.
The bill, which would require bus owners to provide seat belts, fire extinguishers and other safety enhancements, was introduced after a bus crash in Georgia killed several athletes from an Ohio college. It is now scheduled for a hearing before the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee next month.
"Such tragedies are becoming all too common, and many of these deadly accidents are preventable," said Hutchison, the ranking member on the committee, in a written statement. "I urge Congress to make this a priority after the August recess so the roads will be safer for everyone."
Calling for reform, however, is a tune Texans have heard before. In the past six years, 52 people have died in passenger bus accidents and very little has been done to weed out troubled bus carriers, records show.
In the Sherman case, the bus owned and operated by Angel de la Torre was illegal because the operator had been barred not once, but twice, from traveling outside Texas under two different company names.
"It's inexcusable on the federal and state level that someone could do what was reported," Jim Hall, who chaired the National Transportation Safety Board from 1994 to 2001, declared of Friday's crash. "They lost their permit, reapplied, and continued to operate. That's just an embarrassment to the whole system."
Three years ago, a bus bearing an expired and illegal tag belonging to another bus was sent to Bellaire to pick up elderly evacuees trying to escape a looming Hurricane Rita. Hours later, the poorly maintained passenger coach erupted into fire, killing 23 aboard.
And yet, not one of the recommendations made by the NTSBafter the 2005 Hurricane Rita bus fire have been acted on by the federal government, safety officials say.
Keith Holloway, spokesman for the NTSB, said the agency's lengthy accident investigation into the Rita bus fire resulted in 17 recommendations in June 2007, including four key bus safety regulations.
'Still waiting' for NHTSA
However, Holloway confirmed there has been no response from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on drafting new federal regulations to implement the recommended changes.
"We're still waiting," Holloway said. "They could be figuring out how to respond, whether they're are going to adopt our recommendations or propose an alternative."
Rae Tyson, an NHTSA spokesman, said no change in federal regulations will be proposed until the agency is convinced it would be effective in improving safety.
"You can't simply sit down with a piece of paper and start writing" a new regulation, Tyson said. "It's got to be based on research and exploring a number of alternatives to decide what the new standard will be."
Meanwhile, the industry and a spokesman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry question whether anything can be done about a bus operator bent on breaking the law. Jerry Prestridge, executive director of the Texas Bus Association, an industry group, said new regulations wouldn't necessarily have an effect if owners don't follow them.
He noted, for example, that investigators say de la Torre's company made plans to leave the state with passengers, even though it didn't have the authority from federal regulators.
"He is an illegal operator," Prestridge said. "My point is the Texas Legislature could pass all kinds of laws ... and it wouldn't make any difference to a guy like that."
Owner hands over records
Perry, in Los Angeles Monday raising money for his political committee, was unavailable to comment on the bus tragedy.
Spokesman Robert Black said the governor's staff was reviewing the issue of bus safety. But, Black added, he wasn't sure there was much more the state could have done to have prevented last week's accident.
"Not to sound flip, but bad people are going to do bad things," he said. "If someone is intent on doing something bad, they usually don't tell us ahead of time. There isn't much the governor could have done to prevent this."
Meanwhile, records secured by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from de la Torre's Telephone Road office in Houston's East End were handed over to the NTSB over the weekend.
Sources close to the investigation, who asked not to be identified, told the Chronicle that a planned sit-down with the bus operator was canceled Monday because of his lawyers' tight schedules.
The sources also said that other bus companies located along Telephone Road are now being scrutinized by federal regulators.
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