Senate joins attempt to pass bus safety bill after horrific accidents
A recent series of horrific bus accidents, including one in New York that killed 15 people and injured 18 others in March, 2011, has spurred some members of Congress to try to take action. It is an uphill battle, though, and the proposed bus safety legislation faces strong opposition.
A disproportionate number of fatalities are occurring in curbside tour buses, which pick up passengers on the street rather than in bus terminals. Curbside buses have a crash fatality rate that is seven times higher than that of traditional terminal-based buses. Continue reading
Congressional advocates of intercity bus safety try again
Recently, there have been several horrific bus accidents in New York. In March 2011, 15 people were killed and 18 injured when a chartered tour bus, traveling at high speed from a Connecticut casino to Manhattan’s Chinatown, overturned in the Bronx on Interstate 19. Some of the victims were thrown out of the bus while others were trapped inside and at least one was decapitated.
In July, two people were killed and 35 injured in a crash in upstate New York in a tour bus headed for Niagara Falls. In another upstate New York accident that month, a tour bus coming from Canada crashed into a tractor trailer, killing the truck driver and one bus passenger, and injuring 30 passengers. Continue reading