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As you may remember, we have written about several fatal tour bus accidents that have occurred over the past year in the northeast. One of them took place in August on the Pennsylvania Turnpike about 75 miles out of Philadelphia and left 14 people injured.
It seemed that many of these bus accidents involved low-cost curbside motor carriers, which have been gaining popularity throughout the country, but especially in the northeast’s metro areas.
Curbside tour buses are different from traditional interstate tour buses because they pick up passengers on curbs, in parking lots and in other public places, whereas traditional motor carriers use bus terminals for picking up passengers. Curbside companies are also known for having the cheapest fares.
However, following a new report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the low prices might not outweigh the safety risk taken when climbing aboard a curbside tour bus. According to the report, curbside buses are seven times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident than other types of interstate buses.
The NTSB’s reported indicated that the fatal accident rate for curbside operators was 1.4 per 100 vehicles between 2005 and March 2011, compared to just 0.2 percent for the more traditional bus operators. Curbside buses also saw higher rates of deaths and injuries in accidents, the report said.
The way these smaller curbside bus companies operate may partly be to blame, the report indicated. Many of the curbside carriers have been in business for less than 10 years and 44 percent of the companies have a fleet of less than 10 buses. When it came to accidents, it was the newest companies with the fewest buses that had the highest rates, the report said.
Another serious problem the NTSB’s report pointed out is that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates the interstate bus companies, does not have enough manpower to properly do its job. For example, there are 878 federal and state bus inspectors who oversee 765,000 bus companies, the report indicated.
According to Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety, there have been 23 interstate bus accidents leaving 33 people dead and 452 others injured so far this year. Hopefully something is done soon to better regulate this industry before more lives are lost in these tragic accidents.
Source: The Associated Press, “Curbside buses have higher fatal accident rate,” Joan Lowy, Oct. 31, 2011.