Injury in Tour Bus? Our Accident Injury Lawyers are here!
In the wake of a number of high profile accidents involving so-called “curbside bus companies,” the National Transportation Safety Board did a study, in 2012, of the safety of such operations relative to other types of mass transit. The result was both alarming and shocking. Statistics showed that tour and charter buses were seven times more likely to be involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident injury than commuter buses.
The study looked specifically at the curbside bus companies, so named because they tend to pick up passengers at locations other than a terminal. The study also looked exclusively at operators who took passengers from one city or municipality to another.
A principal concern noted by researchers was the fact that tour bus/curbside bus company drivers are generally not regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. This stems in significant part from the way they do business. The FMSCA monitors busing operations and typically performs inspections at easily located bus terminals. Most curbside bus companies don’t use terminals, picking up and dropping off passengers in church parking lots, malls and other locations. In addition, because tour bus companies don’t keep schedules, FMCSA inspectors don’t know when to look for them. The study concluded that the federal agency lacks the manpower and resources to track down and monitor most of the curbside bus business.
The most common safety risk on a tour bus involved the use (or even complete absence) of seat belts. The study found that most tour buses do not have any type of restraint, leading to serious injury if a bus suddenly stops or rolls over. The bus companies say that not only would the installation of seat belts would be cost-prohibitive, drivers would have difficulty enforcing the use of seat belts.
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