One passenger was killed and about 30 injured when a Canadian tour bus was rear-ended by a tractor trailer on the New York State Thruway, near Batavia, N.Y., on Friday. The crash took place soon after the motorcoach re-entered the driving lane after having pulled over to check on an emissions warning light. Both vehicles caught on fire. There were 52 passengers in the motorcoach. The driver of the tractor trailer was killed. The driver of the coach was charged with third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, because his license, though valid in Canada, was not valid in New York.

The accident was the second fatal crash involving a tour bus and the third heavy casualty crash in the New York region in less than a week. Two people died and 35 were injured in an accident involving a tour bus on Sunday, July 17, on its way to Niagara Falls.

Friday’s crash closely follows an announcement by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that the Obama Administration is cracking down on motorcoach and trucking companies. The FMCSA, a division of the Department of Transportation, claims to have issued as many imminent hazard orders placing carriers out-of-service in the past two years as it had in the previous 10 years combined. The agency has cracked down on unsafe carriers through surprise inspections, full compliance reviews and enforcement actions.

Between 2000 and 2009, FMCSA issued a total of 14 imminent hazard orders. In the last two years, FMCSA has issued another 14 imminent hazard orders to take carriers that pose an immediate risk to passengers off the road. For example, last month the Department of Transportation issued an imminent hazard order to a Michigan company found to be transporting passengers in luggage compartments, at great risk to passengers.

“From Day One, I have pledged to put public safety above all else, and we will continue to take action when we see carriers placing passengers at risk,” said U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.  “We have seen the tragic consequences of unsafe practices -- whether it’s ignoring fatigue regulations, providing inadequate driver training, or failing to conduct the proper maintenance of a bus or motorcoach. We continue using all of the tools at our disposal to get unsafe carriers off the road and hope that Congress will act on our proposal to provide us with the necessary authority to expand our safety oversight.”

In the past four months, FMCSA has issued eight out-of-service orders following safety investigations that found the carriers and/or the drivers to be in such substantial non-compliance with federal safety regulations as to pose an imminent hazard to public safety. The orders in 2011 have been issued to seven interstate motorcoach companies -- two each based in Georgia and Pennsylvania, and one each in Michigan, Mississippi and North Carolina. One order was issued to a Tennessee-based truck driver. 

The Obama Administration has doubled the number of bus inspections and comprehensive safety reviews of the nation's estimated 4,000 passenger bus companies. Roadside inspections of motorcoaches have jumped nearly 100 percent, from 12,991 in 2005 to 25,703 in 2010, while compliance reviews are up 128 percent, from 457 in 2005 to 1,042 in 2010. In addition, FMCSA has initiated a greater number of enforcement cases against unsafe passenger carriers under the current administration; these cases have risen from 36 in 2008 to 44 in 2010. In May, FMCSA and its state and local law enforcement partners conducted more than 3,000 surprise passenger carrier safety inspections over a two-week period that resulted in 442 unsafe buses or drivers being removed from the nation's roadways. The strike force took 127 unsafe drivers and 315 unsafe vehicles off the road during these unannounced inspections.

The DOT has asked Congress to provide FMCSA with greater authority to pursue unsafe "reincarnated" passenger carriers by establishing a uniform federal standard to help determine whether a new carrier is a reincarnation of an old, unsafe carrier. The DOT also asked Congress to approve a new procedure that would allow FMCSA to conduct bus safety inspections at en route locations such as rest stops, and to require new motorcoach companies to undergo a full safety audit before receiving operating authority. The DOT asked Congress to raise the penalty for operating illegally or without authority from $2,000 a day to $25,000 per violation.

The DOT also unveiled a "Think Safety: Every Trip, Every Time" pre-trip safety checklist that helps consumers review a bus company's safety rating and U.S. DOT operating authority before buying a ticket or hiring a bus company for group travel. The checklist is available online at FMCSA's Passenger Bus Safety website, www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety-security/pcs/Index.aspx. FMCSA encourages consumers to report any unsafe bus company, vehicle or driver to the agency through a toll free hotline at 888-DOT-SAFT (888-368-7238) or FMCSA's consumer complaint website at http://nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov/HomePage.asp.

John Stachnik, chairman of the US Tour Operators Association, said, "I applaud the decision of the DOT to increase enforcement measures in the motor coach industry. There will always be bus operators who feel that the rules aren't made for them, and then go out and offer substandard services to people who feel that cost is the only deciding factor in selecting a coach operator. It is not fair to the traveling public to allow these rogue operators to take advantage of people, most especially as it applies to the safety of the traveling public." For more information on USTOA, see www.ustoa.com.